List of telephony terminology

The following are terms and acronyms which relate to telephony networks

Acronyms

Acronym	Name	Notes
2G	second-generation mobile telephone
2.5G	Enhanced 2G mobile telephone
3G	third-generation mobile telephone
ADSL	Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
ANI	Automatic Number Identification	US
CID	Caller ID
CLI	Caller Line Identification	Europe
CLID	Caller Line ID	UK
CTI	Computer telephony integration
DDI	Direct Dialing In
DECT	Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications
DID	Direct Inward Dialing
DNIS	Dialed Number Identification System	US
DSL	Digital Subscriber Line
DTMF	dual-tone multi-frequency
GPRS	General Packet Radio Service
GSM	Global system for mobile communications
ISD	International subscriber dialling	UK and India
ISDN	Integrated Services Digital Network
IVR	interactive voice response
PABX	Private Automatic Branch eXchange	Europe
PBX	Private Branch eXchange	US
POTS	plain old telephone service
PSTN	Public Switched Telephone Network
REN	ringer equivalency number
SMS	Short Message Service or text messages
STD	Subscriber trunk dialling	UK and India
TAPI	Telephony Application Programming Interface
WAP	Wireless Application Protocol
WATS	Wide Area Telephone Service	US
VOIP	Voice over Internet Protocol

Other terms

• call originator
• call waiting
• called party
• caller
• calling party
• COCOT
• emergency telephone number
• end instrument
• Engset Calculation
• Erlang unit
• fax
• Handoff
• Handover
• help desk
• Hunt Group
• infrastructure
• interactive voice response (IVR)
• line
• local loop
• long-distance operator
• operator assistance
• person-to-person
• red telephone box
• Red Box
• ringer equivalency number (REN)
• Ringing signal
• rural radio service
• Smartphone
• station-to-station
• telemarketing
• telephone
• telephone booth
• telephone call
• telephone card
• telephone directory
• telephone exchange
• telephone tapping
• Teletraffic Engineering
• trap and trace
• TWX
• vertical service code
• voicemail
• Western Union
• Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS)
• WATS line
• wireless network
• Wi-Fi
• Zenith number

See also

• telephony category