Glossary

IP ADDRESS: address identifying equipment connected to the Internet.

ADSL (ASYMMETRICAL DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER LINE): thanks to the use of two modems, one placed at the subscriber’s home, the other on the subscriber line, in front of the main distribution frame, it is possible to improve network speeds considerably and obtain data transmission rates 70 times faster than with a conventional analogue modem.

ON-NET OR OFF-NET CALL: call made between two customers on the same mobile network or between two customers on separate mobile networks.

ARPU: Average Revenue Per User.

BANDWIDTH: transmission capacity of a transmission link. It determines the amount of information (in bits/s) that can be transmitted simultaneously. In computing, it is often confused with the transport capacity of a communication line, capacity or throughput, expressed in bits per second.

BENCHMARKING: action of making comparisons of costs and services between several user entities in order to establish comparisons by analogies and ratios. Benchmarking requires a precise reference system and a base of comparable entities.

LOCAL RADIO LOOP (“LRL”): Local loop that replaces the copper wires used in networks today with a radio technology with greater flexibility for infrastructure deployment.

BSC (“BASE STATION CONTROLLER”): GSM base station controller. This equipment controls one or more BTSs and manages the radio resource.

BTS (“BASE TRANSCEIVER STATION EQUIPMENT”): GSM equipment composed of radio transmitters/receivers and serving as the interface between the BSC and mobile devices.

INTERCONNECTION CATALOGUE: technical and tariff interconnection offer that operators are required to publish annually so that other operators can draw up their own commercial and tariff offers.

LTIAC: Long-term incremental average cost.

BACKBONE: the backbone, also known as the general network, corresponds to all the transmission and switching media from the subscriber switch.

INTERCONNECTION AGREEMENT: private law contract negotiated between two operators to determine the conditions of interconnection between them on a case-by-case basis.

THROUGHPUT RATE: amount of data transiting across a network over a specified period of time.

DEVICE: device that enables the user to transmit, process or receive information (telephone, fax, modem, etc.).

GMPCS (GLOBAL MOBILE PERSONAL COMMUNICATION BY SATELLITE): Mobile personal communication systems by satellite.

GSM (GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS - GROUPE SPÉCIAL MOBILES): standard developed by ETSI for a pan-European digital cellular mobile radio system, in the 900 MHz band.

IP (INTERNET PROTOCOL): telecommunications protocol used on the networks that support the Internet and enable the information to be transmitted to be split into packets, the different packets to be addressed, transported independently of each other and the initial message to be recomposed on arrival.

ISP: Internet Service Provider: ISP.

KMS: multiservice kiosks offering mainly telephone services and secondarily other services such as fax and postage.

LAN: Local Area Network : A set of computers in the same organisation networked together.

POWERFUL OPERATOR: any operator with significant market power that is able to act and operate independently of its competitors, either alone or in association with other operators.

WIRE NETWORK: network using metal cables or optical fibres to carry data.

SIM (SUBSCRIBER IDENTIFY MODULE): chip card inserted into the mobile device containing the subscriber’s data and enabling their authentication on the network.

TELEDENSITY: number of telephone lines per 100 inhabitants.

UMTS (UNIVERSAL MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM): universal mobile telecommunications system; 3rd generation radiocommunications system used to offer a wide range of services integrating voice, data and images.

UIT (UNION INTERNATIONALE DES TÉLÉCOMMUNICATIONS): international body under the aegis of the UN and based in Geneva, responsible for developing standards in the telecommunications sector.

UPU: Universal Postal Union.

INTERNATIONAL ACCELERATED MAIL: collection, routing and distribution of express documents and postal parcels to and from abroad.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS: any emission, transmission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images or sounds, data, or information of any nature by wire, optical or electromagnetic means.

RADIOELECTRIC EASEMENT: easement which consists of a limitation on the height of obstacles in defined areas around transmission or reception centres, in order to prevent any disturbance of the radio waves transmitted or received by these centres.

CYBERSECURITY: set of tools, policies, security concepts, security mechanisms, guidelines, risk management methods, actions, training, best practices, safeguards and technologies that can be used to protect electronic communications against any event that may compromise the availability, integrity or confidentiality of data stored, processed or transmitted.

RADIOELECTRIC WIDTHS OR RADIOELECTRIC FREQUENCIES: electromagnetic waves whose frequency is by convention less than 3 000 GHz propagating in space without an artificial guide.

INTERNET: global computer network made up of a set of national, regional and private networks, which are linked by an IP communication protocol and cooperate with the aim of offering a single interface to their users.

DEVICE: any equipment intended to be connected directly or indirectly to a network termination point and which transmits, receives or processes electronic communications signals. This does not include equipment used exclusively to access broadcasting services.

NATIONAL INTEGRATION: form of active infrastructure sharing, enabling subscribers of one mobile electronic communications network operator to have access to the network and services offered by another mobile network operator in an area not covered by the first operator’s own network.

UNBUNDLING: remunerated service offered by an operator of a fixed electronic communications network open to the public known as the “offering operator” to another operator of an electronic communications network open to the public or to an operator of electronic communications services holding a general authorisation known as the “beneficiary operator” to enable it to access all the elements of the offering operator’s local loop and thus offer its services directly to its subscribers. Unbundling also includes associated services such as co-location.