COMMON VOIP TERMS

Agent Availability measures the percentage of time an agent is marked 'Available' in a call queue, useful for monitoring call distribution and agent activity.

Average Handle Time (AHT) in VoIP call centers measures the average duration agents spend on calls. It's a critical metric for staffing and efficiency planning in customer support centers.

Customer Service Record (CSR) details legal ownership of a phone number, including authorized signers and service addresses, and is protected by the FCC to ensure customer rights in number porting.

Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) refers to long-established phone service providers, governed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which mandates infrastructure sharing to foster competition.

An Internet Carrier manages infrastructure for phone and internet services, connecting customers to service providers and supporting the translation of digital VoIP calls to other formats.

Circular Call Routing rotates agents in the call distribution list, ensuring equitable distribution of calls among agents.

A VoIP Switchboard, in VoIP telephony, refers to a PBX or a software allowing efficient call direction, with switching managed at the provider level.

A Hosted PBX provides PBX services via an internet connection, similar to on-premise systems but with hardware maintenance and upgrades managed by the service provider.

A Gateway combines modem and router functionalities, often leased from ISPs, and can limit network customization and cause issues like Double NAT.

A Default Gateway is an IP address that devices on a network use to send data outside their local network, typically the IP address of the router.

A Conference ID or PIN is a unique identifier within a conference bridge, acting like a room number in a convention center to group participants together.

A Key System Phone, reminiscent of traditional landline structures, shares lines among all phones, allowing call holding and pickup at different locations.

A Local Call refers to calls within a single switching center or area code, a concept that has evolved with the advent of mobile and VoIP technologies offering broader calling plans.

A Modem connects devices to the internet, acting as an entry point to the digital world, with various types of connections depending on the service.

The NID marks the division between a carrier’s local cabling and customer premises wiring, serving as the connection point to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

A Softphone is a software application that enables making and receiving calls via a service provider, often requiring a headset for optimal audio communication.

A Toll-Free Number allows cost-free calling for the user, with the number's owner bearing the call charges, often included in service packages with additional charges for exceeding allotted minutes.

A Trunk Line is a connection to a PBX, representing the number of simultaneous calls a system can handle or specific connections in a trunking system.

A Phone Line Key on a phone designates individual lines, varying between 2 to 12 keys depending on the model, and can be used for managing multiple calls and as speed dials.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) in VoIP manages the allocation of incoming calls to available agents in a call center, ensuring efficient call handling based on agent availability and call priority.

A VoIP Service Provider supplies dial tone and call handling capabilities to customers, acting as a bridge between users and the broader telecommunication network.

A Network Switch expands a router’s functionality, facilitating data transfer within networks, with variations like Smart Switches and those supporting Power over Ethernet (PoE).

A VoIP Adapter, or Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA), converts traditional phone signals to VoIP-compatible signals, often featuring a web interface for configuration.

A phone extension is a unique identifier in a VoIP network for a phone or feature. Each user requires an extension or phone number, and phones with only an extension use a default office location for e911 addresses.

A Network Packet is a unit of data sent over the internet, akin to an envelope containing sender and recipient information along with the data payload.