ATA – stands for “Analog Telephone Adapter.” This is generally a small box that converts any analog phone or device to work with a VoIP service.

BYoD – simply stands for “Bring your own device” and most typically refers to the practice of allowing employees to use their own devices to interact with the company’s communication like email and or telephone calls. This can also refer to a carrier or service provider having the ability to work with a 3rd party phone or device that you acquired outside of that carrier. 

Bandwidth – This refers to the maximum rate of data transfer that is allowed. It can be thought of as the rate at which information is transmitted and received. 

CDR – Call Record Detail, this refers to the call record that includes details about the call record including duration, timestamp, caller ID and more. 

CSR – Stands for “Customer Service Record” and is a common industry term that a service provider will furnish to their customer in the event that they intend to port their phone number(s) to another carrier. It usually contains the company or individual’s name, the address, account number and all phone numbers on the account. 

Caller ID – Caller Identification, refers to the phone number data that is sent along with a call and usually shown on the screen of the device that receives the call. This information can also include the geographic information or name information that is associated to the particular phone number where the phone call originated from. 

Cloud PBX – Internet based business phone system hosted but a business phone service provider.

Conference Bridge – This is a audio conferencing solution that allows multiple parties to communicate. Callers usually enter the bridge with an access phone number and a pin. 

DDoS – Stands for “Distributed Denial of Service” and refers to the attack on a network. A DDoS attack uses a collection of computers used to flood a network with traffic and overloading it’s capability which in most cases crashes the network. 

DID – Acronym for “Direct Inward Dialing” and refers to the service of being able to reach a particular telephone system or PBX. Telephone numbers are referred to as DIDs in many instances within the telecommunications industry. 

E911 – The “E” stands for “Enhanced” and the 911 is the traditional number dialed to reach emergency services. E911 is the dedicated connecting method for VoIP and mobile phone network users to reach emergency services. Callers still dial 911 only to place the call but is enhanced with an additional transmission of data that in most cases carries the users location to the emergency dispatch. 

Hosted Service – A hosted service is a service that is provided by one party to another via the internet. Hosted PBXs are one example: instead of purchasing a PBX to use on-premise, most businesses are now subscribing to Hosted PBX services, which are usually far more cost-effective, reliable and feature rich.

IP Address – An Internet Protocol address is a piece of information that identifies an internet enabled device. These addresses can either be fixed or change (referred to as a dynamic IP address). Every internet enabled device is assigned an IP address. 

IP Phone – The IP stands for “Internet Protocol” and refers to the fact that a phone is compatible with VoIP telephone service.  IP phones have an ethernet input or are capable of picking up a WiFi signal and connecting to the internet. 

ISP – Acronym for “Internet service provider.” 

IVR – Acronym for “interactive voice response.”  Callers can interact with a phone menu and direct their call to the appropriate department or extension. IVRs can be used in many different applications and have many different levels and destinations depending on the design and programming specifications of the company or organization. IVRs are also sometimes referred to as “attendants” or “caller menu.” 

LAN – Stands for Local Area Network. This usually refers to the network of computers and devices at a location. 

Latency – This term refers to the delay in transmission time. With regard to telephone service latency commonly measures the amount of time that a signal takes to travel between one location and another. Distance, processing power and other factors can have dramatic impacts on this. Latency is observed because it can have a dramatic impact on the quality of a VoIP telephone service. 

Mobility – Service that allows access from any device. 

PBX – This is an acronym for “Private Branch Exchange” and refers to the telephone platform for a company or organization. The PBX is the device or software that switches, routes, and directs calls to their appropriate party within the organization. A PBX can be a physical device on site or be software based and either exist onsite or on a third party’s server. 

POTS – This is an acronym for “plain old telephone service” and it refers to traditional phone service providers and the service they provide delivered over copper telephone cable. 

PSTN – This is an acronym for Public Switched Telephone Network. This term refers to the world-wide circuit switched telephone networks. This network encompasses all telephone lines fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, satellites undersea cables and switching centers. Both VoIP and Standard telephone services use this network to place and receive calls. Provisioning – This term is used to describe the process of establishing a network to provide service to end users. More commonly it’s also describes the act of configuring a VoIP device to properly connect to a server. 

QoS – Stands for “quality of service” and refers to the ability to prioritize certain services over others. Many routers are capable of prioritizing VoIP traffic over web traffic to ensure audio quality isn’t compromised. Router –  This usually refers to the device that processes and distributes the internet connection coming into your location amongst the devices in your office or home. 

SIP Trunking – Sometime referred to as “dial tone” but is actually VoIP telephone connectivity provided to a company when they have their own PBX independent of a phone company. 

SLA – Stands for “Service Level Agreement” and is used in many industries. This is simply a contract between customers and providers that clearly state the amount of time that the customer can expect to access or use the service. 

Scalability – A common industry term that describes the ability to increase or decrease the size of any system based on the need at any given time. 

Soft Phone – A soft phone is a software-based telephone.  Softphones can exist on a computer or a smartphone. 

VoIP – The term VoIP is simply an acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol. VoIP telephone service uses the internet to deliver voice data between parties instead of traditional copper telephone lines used by traditional telephone service providers. VoIP telephone service is usually less expensive and capable of more functionality than standard phone service.