2G (Second Generation)	2G means spectrum within the 880-915 MHz, 925-960 MHz, 1710-1785 MHz or 1805-1880 MHz bands.
	3G (Third Generation)	mobile phone technology using spectrum within 1900-1980 MHz, 2110-2170 MHz.
	ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)	a technology that transforms a normal copper telephone line into a high-speed digital line.  This is the technology that gives you always-on access to telephone services and the Internet at the same time. An ADSL line has a higher downstream speed (into the end user) than upstream speed (away from the end user).  It's ideal for people who needs to download things quicker than load things back up again.
	Analogue	the direct representation of voice or video as a waveform, measured in cycles per second (Hertz). Human speech is analogue and as a consequence the original telephone networks were entirely analogue.  Over recent years, we have seen a significant shift from this towards digital technology.
	ASP (Applications Service Provider)	a company that provides software and IT services via the Internet.
	ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)	a technology that enables all types of information (data, voice and video in any combination) to be transported by a single network.
	Backhaul	telecom traffic flowing from the customer back into the network.
	Bandwidth	the speed at which information can be transferred in a telecommunications system. Measured in bits per second (bit/s).
	Bit	the most basic piece of information in a digital network, either 1 or O.
	bit/s (bits per second)	the rate at which digital data can be carried expressed in Kilobit (1KB - 1000 bits - Kbit/s), Megabit (1MB - 1 million bits - Mbit/s), or Gigabit (1GB - 1000 million bits - Gbit/s).
	Bluetooth	Bluetooth wireless technology enables close links between mobile computers, mobile phones, portable handheld devices, and connectivity to the Internet.
	Broadband	a very high speed 'always-on' service connection allowing large amounts of information to be conveyed quickly, such as data, graphics files or video. Generally defined as a bandwidth > 512 Kbit/s.
	Byte	a group of eight binary digits (bits) which together can represent an alpha symbol or numeric character.
	Code Powers	under the Telecommunications Act (1984), operators have the right to enter land or buildings to install and maintain their telecommunications apparatus, such as cables and switches.
	Contention	the ratio at which ADSL and cable operators oversell capacity. Typically ADSL ratio is 20:1 for business and 50:1 for residential customers. The quality of the service degrades rapidly with an increasing number of users.
	Copper Line (aka "twisted copper pairs")	the main transmission medium used in telephony networks to connect a telephone or other apparatus to the local exchange. Narrow bandwidth and so limited ability to carry Broadband services even with technology such as DSL.
	Data Conferencing	the ability to work collaboratively on documents using video communication.
	Digital	the coded transmission of voice, data or video in binary digits or bits.
	DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)	a family of technologies generically referred to as DSL, or xDSL, capable of transforming ordinary phone lines into high-speed digital lines.  This is used for services such as fast Internet access and video-on-demand. ADSL (Asymmetric DSL), HDSL (High data rate DSL) and VDSL (Very high data rate DSL) are all variants of xDSL.
	DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Loop Multiplex)	equipment at an exchange to operate DSL services.
	Ducts	underground pipes through which telecom cables are laid.
	EDI	Electronic Data Interchange - agreed standard for transferring information between different applications. An early version of electronic commerce.
	EDV (Electronic Data Vaulting)	a service that stores company data in a secure environment for immediate retrieval over a Broadband network.
	EPS 8/9	this technology allows hSo to provide up to a 4.6Mbit/s Broadband service to buildings over one or two copper lines.
	ERP	Enterprise Resource Planning - a suite of back office business applications to enable an organisation to integrate and automate key operations.
	Extranet	a network connecting a group of entities using standard Internet protocols.
	Firewall	a system designed to prevent unauthorised access to or from a private network.
	FTP (File Transfer Protocol)	provides a basic service for the reliable transfer of files from one computer to another.
	GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)	a higher bandwidth mobile phone service wireless (2.5G).
	HDSL (High data rate Digital Subscriber Line)	one of the earliest forms of DSL services to be widely used. It is symmetrical, offering the same data rates upstream and downstream. The maximum data rate is however lower than that for ADSL.
	HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)	the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web.
	Hyperlink	a connection linking different pieces of data to the web.
	IBC	Integrated Broadband Communications.
	ICT	Information and Communications Technology.
	IN	Intelligent Network - a telecommunications network where computers control the switching functions. These allow more flexibility than switched based systems.
	Internet	a global network of networks, accessed by users with a computer and a modem via a service provider.
	Internet Telephony	a specific type of VoIP service that uses the public Internet to carry voice traffic (aka Voice over the Internet).
	Intranet	closed data network linking a number of sites using standard internet protocol. Typically used by a company for internal communications.
	IP (Internet Protocol)	the protocol used for routing and carriage of messages across the Internet.
	ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)	a network usually based on public telephone network which provides digital links to customers at a maximum bandwidth of 128Kbit/s.
	ISP (Internet Service Provider)	companies which provide telecommunications services over fixed or mobile networks, or services with a telecommunication service component, to the public at large but do not own or operate telecommunications networks.
	JavaScript	this helps extend the limited capabilities of HTML when developing websites and introduces more interactivity.
	LAN (Local Area Network)	a network within a building that connects a group of computers, printers and servers, primarily for the sharing of resources and exchange of information (e.g. e-mail).
	Leased Lines (aka private circuits)	a fixed unswitched communication link between two points. Expensive compared to Internet (IP) networks.
	LES 10/100/1000	Lan Extension Service is a technology used to supply Broadband links of 10, 100 or 1000 Mbit/s to buildings up to 30 km away from existing Broadband connections.
	Managed (Private) Network	the provision of all the necessary services to ensure that the owner or user of a private network is freed from all aspects associated with its operation and use, other than as a user of the services provided by the network.
	Mbit/s	mega (million) bits per second. A measure of the speed of transfer of digital information.
	Narrowband	a dial-up connection allowing only a limited amount of information to be conveyed, such as voice telephony. Usually refers to bandwidth < 128 Kbit/s.
	Network	two or more computers linked together allowing users to share information.
	Network Embedded Services	services provided by a network operator from within its network with service level advantages over customer premises equipment. Due to the network efficiencies that arise, service providers who are not network operators or owned by network operators would not ordinarily be able to compete in the provision of such service.
	Optical Fibre	cable made of glass fibres through which signals are transmitted as pulses of light. Used in Broadband networks and can carry extremely high bandwidth traffic.
	Packet Service	the transmission of data in the form of discrete blocks (packets) of information used by the Internet.
	PoP (Point of Presence)	a place where telecom equipment is located for network access.
	Private Circuits	(aka leased circuits) point-to-point circuits for customer' exclusive use covering speech, data or image communications.
	Private Peering	an agreement between network operations to interconnect and exchange routing information and traffic between their networks.
	Protocol	the rules that govern the format and control of messages being sent around a network.
	Resilience	the capability of a network to remain in operation after a failure of one element.
	Router	equipment that links a LAN to another network, hence the ability to 'route' traffic.
	SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy)	voice and data circuits over long distance
	SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line)	one of the DSL services. Unlike ADSL, it offers the same data rate speeds of 2Mbit/s both upstream and downstream.
	SMDS (Switched Multi-megabit Datastream)	switched multi-megabit data service - a public switched Broadband data service providing inter-site connectivity of, for example, Local Area Networks (LANs), and mainframe computers, at multi-megabit speeds.
	Splitter	a device which separates a local loop into two independent channels, so that different services can be run on it without interference.
	TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)	allows data to be reliably sent to the correct party across Internet networks.
	Telecommunications	conveyance of voice, data or video over a long distance.
	Telecommunications Act	the Telecommunications Act 1984.
	Teleworking	working away from an office and using technology to communicate remotely.
	Tier 1 Service Provider	a major international telecom service provider e.g. BT.
	Tier 2 Service Provider	a National service provider.
	Tier 3 Service Provider	a Regional service provider.
	Trunk network	that part of a telecommunications network which provides connections between customer-serving exchanges.
	UDP (User Datagram Protocol)	provides data transport where reliability is unimportant.
	UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)	so called3rd generation mobile communications system which will provide enhanced range of multimedia services (eg video, high speed internet access).
	URL (Universal Resource Locator)	the address of a file or page on the Internet.
	VDSL	Very high data rate Digital Subscriber Line - one of the family of DSL services. It offers very high data rates over relatively short distances (up to 55Mbit/s over a line length of 300 metres).
	Video conferencing	video and audio communication between remote parties facilitated by Broadband.
	VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)	the generic name for the transport of voice traffic using Internet Protocol (IP) technology. The VoIP traffic can be carried on a private managed network or the public Internet (see Internet telephony) or a combination of both. Some organisations use the term 'IP telephony' interchangeably with 'VoIP'.
	VPN	these are used by a company to make inter-site connections for telephone or data over a public network as if there were dedicated leased lines between these sites.
	WAN (Wide Area Network)	a network allowing the interconnection and intercommunication of a group of computers over a long distance.
	WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)	specification for the communication protocols for to enables wireless devices to make Internet access .
	Wideband	an intermediate bandwidth without the fuller capacity of Broadband.
	Wifi	IEEE 802.11b standard for wireless communications used to connect PC's and Personal Digital Assistant's (PDA) to a LAN.
	XML (Extensible Markup Language)	standardised language of data exchange, a more flexible version of HTML allowing data/content types to be defined.