Dictionary

This dictionary has been set up to help you better understand the technical "lingo" associated with voice and data communication. Simply click on a letter below to find a particular word.

Cabling
A combination of cables, wire, cords and connecting hardware used in the telecommunications infrastructure.

Call Answer Service
A voice messaging system feature that allows callers sto leave messages or transfer to another extension if the called party is busy or does not answer.

Call Coverage
A feature that lets users send their intercom and transferred calls and calls on their owned lines to a covering extension when they are unable to anser calls.

Call Forwarding/Call Follow Me
This feature forwards all calls from a user's extension to another extension or external number. Users can activate this feature from their own extension (Call Forwarding) or from any other extension in the system (Call Follow Me).

Call Park
A feature that lets users put a call on a special type of hold so it can be picked up from any extension in the system.

Call Report
A page of information that begins with a header and lists incoming and outgoing calls to and from your business on a call-by-call basis.

Call Screening
This feature allows the user to listen to a caller leaving a message in the user's mailbox.

Call Waiting
A feature that lets standard phone users receive notification of a second incoming call when they are busy with another call. The user can press the switchook to put the first call on hold and answer the second call.

Caller ID
A feature that displays an incoming caller's number (or name) on a system display phone. To get Caller ID, you must subscribe to the service from your local phone company.

Calling Group
A group of extensions that can be called simulaneously by dialing a group calling code.

Calling Restriction
This feature lets customers identify the types of outgoing calls that can and can't be made on all lines from an extension.

Category
ANSI/EIA (American National Standards Institute/Electronic Industries Association) Standard 568 is one of several standards that specify "categories" of twisted pair cabling systems (wires, junctions, and connectors) in terms of the data rates that they can sustain. (e.g. Category 3, Category 4, etc.)

Central Office
The location housing telephone switching equipment that provides local telephone service and access to toll facilities for long-distance calling.

Centralized Voice Mail
This allows one voice mail system to be shared between two or more locations, rather than each location having its own voice mail system.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
The broad category of applications that involve connecting a phone system to a computer. The most common example of a CTI application is using Caller ID information to bring up the appropriate database file on a computer screen.