Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bu.edu!telecom-request From: lester@infonode.ingr.com (Lester Bartel) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Telecom Acronyms Message-ID: Date: 21 Feb 91 16:37:53 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Organization: Intergraph Corp. Huntsville, AL Lines: 42 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 143, Message 10 of 10 I have been reading the telecom group for several months now, and am still lost regarding the acronyms used here. Could someone please explain to me and perhaps to the net what the acronyms are and what they mean? Some examples are PTT, COCOT, CO, intra-NPA, ANI and CIDCO. Other terms have only a fuzzy meaning to me: switch, crossbar. A definition of these and other terms would help me understand what is being said, and possibly remove any erroneous definitions I may have determined from context. Lester Bartel b23b!naomi!lester@ingr.com Dazix, An Intergraph Company uunet!ingr!b23b!naomi!lester [Moderator's Note: Ah, a chance to plug the Telecom Archives again! We have just the files you are looking for. In my spare time -- moderating this Digest does not keep me all that busy :) -- I maintain the Archives; a collection of the past ten year's worth of Digests and dozens of other telecom related files. You would want the three files in the 'glossary and acronyms' category. The Archives is ftp'able for users on the Internet. Other need to use an archives mail server. Using ftp: 'ftp lcs.mit.edu'. Login anonymous, and give your own net address (name@site.domain) as the password. When on line, you must 'cd telecom-archives'. Then use regular ftp commands to search the main and various sub-directories and 'get' the files you want. Use the command 'dir' to check exact file names. You will find three which begin with the word 'glossary'. To address your specific inquiries: PTT = Post, Telegraph and Telephone. (A generic name for the telephone administration in many foreign countries). COCOT = Coin Operated, Customer Owned Telephone. (The private payphones you see around everywhere.) CO = Central Office. (The telephone company switching center). ANI = Automatic Number Identification (When the number you are calling from is given automatically to the recipient of the call). For those of you who have the glossary files already, at least one of them has been updated by Mike Patton so you may wish to get a more recent version of the file. PAT]