An LEC, or Local Exchange Carrier, is a telephone company that is responsible for managing calls within a specific territory, such as a city or county. The vast majority of the United States is managed by LECs, which differ from IXCs, or Interexchange Carriers. While LECs manage local calls between two parties, IXCs are responsible …
An InterLATA or long distance call refers to a telephone call made between two separate LATAs. LATA (Local Access and Transport Area) is a term used to describe the area that a local telephone company manages. Markets, rather than geographical areas, define LATAs. Therefore, LATAs can cross over state borders and use multiple area codes. …
A CLEC, or Competitive Local Exchange Carrier, is a type of telecommunications provider that was formed after the breakup of AT&T. CLECs are usually smaller telecommunications providers that compete with ILECs, or Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers, which were already in place before AT&T’s separation. While CLECs generally provide the same services as ILECS for less, …
A PBX (Private Branch Exchange) is a small telephone switch that a company or organization owns. These organizations purchase PBXs to reduce the total number of telephone lines they need to lease from the telephone company. Without a PBX, a company has to lease one telephone line for every employee with a telephone. With a …
As technology has improved over the past few decades, cell phones have only gotten better and better.Though most people do not stop to consider the idea, it is still an amazing feat even today that what was once only an idea presented in movies and novels, has now become our number one modern-day communication device. …
DTMF tones, or Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency signaling, are audible tones that are used by touch-tone telephones to identify which number key was pushed by the operator. DTMF tones have been used since 1963 and are used by all standard touch-tone telephones in the United States as well as in many other countries around the world. DTMF …
UMTS is an abbreviation for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. It is one of the third-generation (3g) cell phone technologies quickly developing today. UTMS is also referred to as the 3GSM so as to emphasize the coalition between 3G technology and GSM standard. In theory, the UTMS, using W-CDMA, is supposed to be able to transfer …
When a coin is inserted into a payphone, the payphone emits a set of tones to ACTS (Automated Coin Toll System). Red boxes work by fooling ACTS into believing you have actually put money into the phone. The red box simply plays the ACTS tones into the telephone microphone. ACTS hears those tones, and allows …
The Mobile Telephone Switching Office, or MTSO, is a system that automatically keeps track of a cell phone user’s relative signal by monitoring readings from cell phone towers near the user. MTSO systems also automatically switch a cell phone’s service from one cell phone tower to another depending on which tower will provide the user …
Before activating a new Verizon Wireless cell phone, it is important that you backup your phone numbers. By making the switch from an older phone to a newer one, you'll lose access to the older one. Therefore, transfer your numbers either by bringing it into a Verizon Wireless store or use the Backup Assistant. This …