Telco jargon, translated.
Every TLA the industry will throw at you — explained the way your mate down the pub would explain it.
ACMA
Australian Communications and Media Authority — the regulator every legitimate Australian phone carrier answers to. We’re a registered carriage service provider.
Auto-attendant
The automated “press 1 for sales” greeting that answers and routes callers. Same thing as an IVR.
BLF
Busy Lamp Field. The little light on a desk phone next to a colleague’s name that turns red when they’re on a call.
Call queue
A virtual waiting line that holds callers — with hold music and position announcements — until an agent is free.
CLI / CLID
Calling Line Identifier — the number that shows up on someone’s phone when you ring them.
Codec
The maths that compresses your voice for the network. G.722 / Opus = HD; G.711 = standard; G.729 = low-bandwidth.
DECT
Wireless protocol used by cordless desk phones and headsets. Better range than Bluetooth, dedicated voice spectrum.
DID
Direct Inward Dial — a published phone number that rings to a specific destination inside your system.
Direct Routing
Microsoft Teams feature that lets a third-party carrier (like us) provide PSTN calling, instead of buying Microsoft Calling Plans.
E.164
International number format, e.g. +611300250319. The standard format we expect for portability.
Failover
Automatic rerouting of your calls to a backup destination (mobile, another site) the moment your internet or a device drops.
FoIP
Fax over IP — for sending faxes over a SIP connection. Mostly replaced by e-fax now.
HD voice
Wideband audio codec (G.722 / Opus) — sounds noticeably clearer than old PSTN narrowband.
Hunt group
A group of extensions that ring in sequence (or simultaneously) until someone answers.
IVR
Interactive Voice Response — "press 1 for sales, 2 for support". Auto-attendant.
Jitter
Variation in the delay between voice packets. Too much and audio breaks up — a sign your network needs QoS.
Latency
The delay between speaking and being heard. Keep it under about 150ms and a call feels natural.
MOS
Mean Opinion Score — a 1-to-5 rating of call-audio quality. Above 4.0 is considered toll-grade.
NAT
Network Address Translation — how your router shares one public IP. Misconfigured NAT is the classic cause of one-way audio.
NBN
Australia’s National Broadband Network. Your internet pipe — VoIP rides on top of it.
PBX
Private Branch eXchange — the phone system that connects internal handsets to outside lines.
PoE
Power over Ethernet — desk phones powered by the network cable, no separate power brick.
Porting
Moving a phone number from one carrier to another while keeping the number.
PSTN
Public Switched Telephone Network — the "real" phone network, what you call when you dial out.
QoS
Quality of Service — network settings that give voice traffic priority over downloads so calls stay clear.
RTP
Real-time Transport Protocol — the stream that actually carries your voice once SIP has set the call up.
SBC
Session Border Controller — the security gateway between your phone system and the public internet.
SIP
Session Initiation Protocol — the signalling layer that sets up VoIP calls.
SLA
Service Level Agreement — the uptime / response promise we make in writing.
Softphone
A phone app on your computer or mobile — no desk handset required.
SRTP
Secure Real-time Transport Protocol — encrypted voice on the wire.
Trunk
A bunch of phone-call paths between two systems (e.g. between us and your Teams tenant).
Twinning
Making one number ring two devices simultaneously (e.g. desk + mobile).
Voicemail-to-text
Transcribes voicemails and sends them to you as text or email, so you can read a message at a glance.
VoIP
Voice over IP — phone calls carried over an internet connection.
Wallboard
A live dashboard (usually on a TV) showing call queues, wait times and agent status in real time.
Still scratching your head?
If a term here didn’t clear it up, ask a real technician. We talk in plain English — no acronym soup, no sales script.