Decoding Common Telephone System Acronyms

Acronyms are popping up everywhere, we see them on social media (SMH), text them to our friends (OMG), and now they are advancing on the workplace. An acronym is an abbreviation derived from the first part of a word or phrase. As technology continues to grow at a break neck speed we must keep pace with what these telephone system acronyms are and what they mean.

This will help to stay in the know in the midst of an ever expanding world. If you have ever Googled telephone systems you will see many acronyms that have begun sneaking into articles. VoIP, or “Voice over Internet Protocol”, is the most common acronym you will come across.  It means the phone service is sending voice packets over an internet connection instead of a standard phone line. IP PBX is another common term. This stands for “Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange” which is the exchange service used to make an IP call. PSTN stands for “Public Switched Telephone Network” which does the same thing as an IP PBX only it is used to connect landline circuits. It is more commonly known as POTS or “Plain Old Telephone Service”. UC stands for “Unified Communications”. UC helps integrate a wide variety of devices so they can all work together to keep their users connected. For the telephone world this means you can now listen to your voicemail via an email or send a fax from your cell phone. UC is a huge advance for the business world because you can access/send/receive information from anywhere which leads us to our last few acronyms; SIP or “Session Initiation Protocol”, IM or “Instant Message”, and VC or “Video Conference”. SIP is how calls are initially set up and then how they convey data. Once the connection has been made via a SIP you can IM, VC, or just make a regular telephone call. Knowing these acronyms means you know what telephone systems can do to improve your business and how to properly research and communicate with people about telephone systems. For information on how to outfit your company with the best telephone system call the professionals at Affordable Telephone today!

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