3G Mobile — Wireless networks built for digital voice and high-speed data, including video.

4G Mobile — The future generation of wireless networks, designed to offer broadband speeds and integrate different types of mobile technology.

Access — Equipment that provides a connection between service providers' central offices and homes, businesses and other user locations.

ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) — A high-speed, high-bandwidth transmission technology that carries data traffic in fixed-size cells.

Backhaul — Aggregating and transmitting traffic from remote sites to a main transmission network.

Bandwidth — The carrying capacity of a communications channel.

Bluetooth — Technology that enables short-range wireless communications, for example, between a mobile phone and a wireless headset.

Broadband — A high-bandwidth fiber optic, coaxial or hybrid line with more capacity than a voice-grade phone line, which is capable of carrying numerous voice, data and video channels at once.

Carrier Ethernet — A scalable, manageable carrier-class network that delivers standardized Ethernet services with Quality of Service and high levels of reliability.

Data — Any network traffic other than voice phone calls. Increasingly, phone calls and video are encoded and transported as data.

Deployment Services — Services such as installation, training and support.

Digital — Systems that transport information in the binary 1s and 0s format, like a computer code, to improve clarity and quality.

Digital Cross-Connect — A specialized high-speed data channel switch that connects transmission paths based on network needs (rather than call by call). Digital cross-connects manage and reroute network traffic, and combine, consolidate and segregate signals to maximize efficiency.

Dynamic Optical Networking — A self-tuning optical network with dynamic provisioning and restoration of wavelengths.

Ethernet — A data network standard to connect computers, printers, workstations, terminals and servers.

Fiber Access — Fiber-optic systems that extend to homes or neighborhoods to deliver broadband services, including voice, data and video.

Frame Relay — Switching interface standard that transmits bursts of data over wide-area networks (WANs).

Internet — The world's largest decentralized network of computers and network servers.

IP (Internet Protocol) — Rules that enable cooperating computers to share information across a network.

Managed Access — An access and transport system that simplifies end-to-end management of mobile transport and business services.

Mobile — Wireless communications networks that use radio frequencies rather than cables.

MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching) — A packet-switching standard that assigns levels of priority to multiple traffic types within a data stream to assure Quality of Service (QoS).

MSPP (Multiservice Provisioning Platform) — A system that consolidates the number of separate devices needed to provide transport, switching and routing services.

Multiservice Router — A network switch that handles both data and the real-time transmission of video and voice with high reliability and quality.

Network — A system of equipment and connections for the transmission of signals that carry voice, video and data.

Network Management — A set of procedures, software, equipment and operations techniques designed to keep a network operating at maximum efficiency.

ONT (Optical Network Terminal) — A device that connects a fiber-access network to a home or business to deliver voice, data and video services.

Optical Transport — Technology that transmits communications traffic in the form of laser light over fiber-optic cable.

Professional Services — Services such as network optimization, business case analysis and network performance enhancements.

Pseudowire — A virtual connection that transports both traditional and new services over a converged packet network.

QoS (Quality of Service) — Measurement of integrity of traffic moving over a network. QoS is especially important for real-time transmissions such as financial transactions, voice and video.

ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer) — A system that enables the remote configuration of any wavelength on any network element, reducing the need to dispatch technicians.

SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) — Transport format for transmitting high-speed digital information over fiber-optic facilities outside of North America, comparable to SONET.

SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) — Transport format for sending high-speed digital signals through fiber-optics in North America, comparable to SDH.

TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) — Technology that combines multiple streams of traffic by assigning timeslots, sequentially in turn from each input onto a combined higher speed channel.

Transport — The process of moving voice, data or video across communications networks.

Triple-Play Services — Offering of voice, video and data from a single service provider.

VoD (Video on Demand) — A service that enables consumers to watch a video program when they choose to.

VQE (Voice Quality Enhancement) — A technique that improves sound quality by isolating and filtering out unwanted signals and sounds such as echoes and background noise.

Wireless — Mobile networks that use radio frequency rather than cables.

Wireline — Networks that use cables rather than radio frequency.