Tiscali 2008 Annual Report Download - page 172

12 ATTACHMENT - GLOSSARY
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Portal website which represents the point of departure or rather an entry port for a substantial group of
Internet resources or an Intranet.
Router hardware instrument or in some cases software, which identifies the subsequent point of the
network to which the bundle of data received is to be sent, routing this data bundle to its final
destination.
Service Provider party which provides the end users and the content providers with a range of services, including an
owned service centre, exclusive or third party.
Server IT component which provides services to other components (typically customer calls) via a network.
Set-top-box or STB equipment capable of handling and conveying the data, voice and television connection, installed
at the end customer’s.
Syndication the re-sale of radio and TV transmission to the wholesale trade by a media company who owns the
rights and usually also the delivery platform.
SoHo acronym for Small office Home office, small offices, mainly professional studios and small businesses.
SHDSL acronym for Single-pair High-speed Digital Subscriber Line. The SHDSL is a technology for xDSL
family telecommunications and is achieved by means of direct interconnection under LLU and
permits a high-speed balanced data connection in both directions (transmission and receipt).
Single Play service comprising just broadband data access, not in combination with other multi-play components
like the voice service and IPTV. Broadband access can be provided by means of LLU, Wholesale or
Bitstream platforms.
Single Play voice comprises solely access to the voice service, not in combination with other multi-play components
like broadband access and IPTV. The voice service can be provided by VoIP and CPS modes.
SMPF acronym for Shared Metallic Path Facilities, synonym of Shared Access (unbundled access).
Triple Play combined range of land-line and/or mobile telephone, Internet and/or TV services by a single operator.
Local loop unbundling or LLU unbundled access to the local network, or rather the possibility that the telephone operators have,
since the telecommunications market was deregulated, of using the existing physical infrastructures
created by another operator, so as to offer customers their own services, paying a fee to the operator
who actually owns the infrastructures.
VAS acronym for Value-Added Services, the value added services provide a greater level of functioning
with respect to basic transmission services offered by a telecommunications network for the transfer
of information between its terminals. They include the analogue voice communications switched
via cable or wireless; direct point-to-point digital service “without restrictions” at 9,600 bit/s;
package switching (virtual call); analogue and direct broadband transmission of TV signals and
additional services, such as closed group of users; calls on hold; reverse charge calls; call forwarding
and caller identification. The value added services provided by the network, terminals or specialized
centres include the message switching services (MHS) (which can be used, among other things,
for commercial documents according to a pre-determinate set of forms); electronic lists of users,
network addresses and terminals; e-mail; fax; teletext; videotext and video-telephone. The value
added services may also include voice telephone value added services such as free-phone numbers
or pay telephone services.
VISP acronym for Virtual Internet Service provision (sometimes also called Wholesale ISP). This is the re-
sale of internet services acquired wholesale from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) which possesses
a network infrastructure.