Europe: Definition according to 2002/19/EC - Access Directive
"access" means the making available of facilities and/or services, to another undertaking, under defined conditions, on either an exclusive or non-exclusive basis, for the purpose of providing electronic communications services. It covers inter alia: access to network elements and associated facilities, which may involve the connection of equipment, by fixed or non-fixed means (in particular this includes access to the local loop and to facilities and services necessary to provide services over the local loop); access to physical infrastructure including buildings, ducts and masts; access to relevant software systems including operational support systems; access to number translation or systems offering equivalent functionality; access to fixed and mobile networks, in particular for roaming; access to conditional access systems for digital television services; access to virtual network services.
Definition according to Com(2000)384:
'Access' means the making available of facilities and/or services, to another undertaking, under defined conditions, on either an exclusive or non-exclusive basis, for the purpose of providing electronic communications services. It covers inter alia:
Interconnection is a specific type of access implemented between public network operators. Access in this Directive does not refer to access by end-users.
Europe: This is the capital employed to provide customer local access to the public telephone network.
Access codes for corporate networks
Europe: Codes that are used to route calls between public and private (corporate) networks
Europe: "Access deficit" refers to the case where the revenues an operator earns from connection and rental charges do not provide it with a reasonable rate of return on capital employed in providing access.
The price a facilities-based telecommunications carrier negotiates with a foreign carrier for handling one minute of international telephone service, intended to allow each carrier to recover the costs it incurs for terminating an incoming international call on its domestic telephone network. Each carrier's portion of the accounting rate is referred to as the settlement rate, which, in almost all cases, is equal to one-half of the negotiated accounting rate. At settlement, each carrier nets the minutes of service it originated against the minutes the other carrier originated. The carrier that originated more minutes of service pays the other carrier a net settlement payment calculated by multiplying the settlement rate by the number of imbalanced traffic minutes.
Addressing Supporting Organisation (ASO)
The ASO is intended to assist, review and develop recommendations on Internet policy and structure relating to the system of IP addresses. It currently comprises the three Regional Internet Address Registries AP-NIC (Asia-Pacific), ARIN (Americas) and RIPE-NCC[32] (Europe).
Administrative Domain Name Challenge Panels (ACPs)
"Administrative Domain Name Challenge Panels" ("ACPs") means the panels established under this MoU to entertain challenges by third parties to the allocation of SLDS (Single Level Domains).
(MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING on the Generic Top Level Domain Name Space of the Internet Space of the Internet Domain Name System (gTLD - MoU)).
Advanced Communications Technologies and Services (ACTS (1))
Advanced Communications Technology Systems (ACTS (2))
According
to the Directive 1999/93/EC on
a Community framework for electronic signatures:
"Advanced Electronic signature" means an electronic signature which
meets the following requirements:
(a) it is uniquely linked to the signatory,
(b) it is capable of identifying the signatory,
(c) it is created using means that the signatory can maintain under his sole
control, and
(d) it is linked to the data to which it relates in such a manner that any subsequent
change of the data is detectable.
Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS)
US Analogue Cellular System standard
Aeronautical Public Correspondence services (APC)
Generic term for radiocommunications based services, allowing airline passengers to communicate from a plane whilst in flight. Systems are being developed on the basis of both satellite and terrestrial systems. Within Europe, the Terrestrial Flight Telecommunications System (TFTS), is now in service with a number of airlines
Alpha-numeric dialling / keypad
Dialling a telephone number by using the corresponding letters on the telephone's keypad that correspond to the name of the service or the called party e.g. "0-800-FLOWERS"
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)
Definition according to COM(2002) 96 - Next Generation Internet - priorities for action in migrating to the new Internet protocol IPv6:
Devices remain connected to the Internet when powered up (e.g. ADSL), rather than establishing temporary connections (e.g. dialup). Because devices need a unique IP address continuously, the rise in always-on devices demands more IP address space.
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
Regional IP Registry for Americas Region
American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T)
Europe: Definition according to (1999/5/EC):
"Apparatus" means any equipment that is either radio equipment or telecommunications terminal equipment or both
Application Program Interface (API)
Europe: Definition according to 2002/21/EC - Framework Directive
"Application Program Interface (API)" means the software interfaces between applications, made available by broadcasters or service providers, and the resources in the enhanced digital television equipment for digital television and radio services.
Definition according to COM(1999)539
API is a programmatic interface used for inter -program communications or for interfacing between protocol layers.
Approvals Committee Terminal Equipment (ACTE)
Europe: Regulatory and advisory committee set up by the Mutual Recognition Directive (91/263/EEC). This has subsequently been replaced by the RTTE Directive 1999/5/EC and the TCAM committee.
Asia Pacific Network Information Center (AP-NIC)
Regional IP Registry for Asia-Pacific Region
Asian Mobile Telecommunications (AMT)
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT)
Europe: Definition according to 2002/21/EC - Framework Directive
"associated facilities" means those facilities associated with an electronic communications network and/or an electronic communications service which enable and/or support the provision of services via that network and/or service. It includes conditional access systems and electronic programme guides;
Definition according to Com(2000)393
'Associated facilities' means those facilities associated with an electronic communications network and/or an electronic communications service, to which access is necessary for the competitive provision of electronic communications services on equal terms;
Europe: Definition according to Directive (98/84/EC):
"Associated service" shall mean the installation, maintenance or replacement of conditional access devices, as well as the provision of commercial communication services in relation to them or to protected services
Association of GSM operators (GSM MoU)
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
A type of Digital Subscriber Line System used to provide high speed Internet access on ordinary phone lines (copper pairs). ADSL provides speeds up to 8 Mbps downstream (to the user) and up to 1 Mbps upstream, depending upon line length and conditions.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Broadband transmission technology which provides the backbone of the world's telecommunications network. ATM breaks information flows into small fixed-length cells of 53 bytes. Cells of any type of traffic - voice, multimedia, data or video - can be interspersed with each other. ATM operates at speeds of 25, 155 and 622 Mbps.
"Authentication" means a function for establishing the validity of a claimed identity of a user, device or another entity in an information or communications system.
(OECD COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of March 27, 1997 concerning Guidelines for Cryptography Policy)
Europe: Definition according to (97/13/EC):
'Authorizations' means any permission setting out rights and obligations specific to the telecommunications sector and allowing undertakings to provide telecommunications services and, where applicable, to establish and/or operate telecommunications networks for the provision of such services, in the form of a 'general authorization' or 'individual licence', as defined below:
'general authorization' means an authorization, regardless of whether it is regulated by a 'class licence' or under general law and whether such regulation requires registration, which does not require the undertaking concerned to obtain an explicit decision by the national regulatory authority before exercising the rights stemming from the authorization,
'individual licence' means an authorization which is granted by a national regulatory authority and which gives an undertaking specific rights or which subjects that undertaking's operations to specific obligations supplementing the general authorization where applicable, where the undertaking is not entitled to exercise the rights concerned until it has received the decision by the national regulatory authority;
"Availability" means the property that data, information, and information and communications systems are accessible and usable on a timely basis in the required manner.
(OECD COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of March 27, 1997 concerning Guidelines for Cryptography Policy)
Europe: Similar concept to incremental cost, except that instead of the cost relating to an "outward" increment in output the focus is on the cost that can be 'avoided' by a decrement in output.