Glossary Terms - "I"

IEEE
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

ILEC
An Incumbent Local Exchange Company (now includes RBOC’s). The monopoly companies that provided Local exchange service prior to “Divestiture”. Also were known as Independent’s.

In Band Signaling
Signaling which utilizes frequencies within the intelligence band of a channel.

Inside Wire
The phone wire, including the associated jack, inside your home or business (and could include wire that is outside on the building) that connects your phone to the phone box where a telephone company's lines enter the building. Inside wire is owned by the customer and is their responsibility. If you rent, inside wire is your landlord or the property owner's responsibility. Inside wire does not include customer premises equipment.

Interactive Services
A communication system that allows nearly instantaneous two-way conversations with the help of a computer. Home shopping, viewer-participation game shows, distance learning and E-mail on computer networks are examples.

Interconnect
A company or vendor selling customer premises equipment, generally PBXs and other types of office telephone systems. An interconnect company is typically an independent distributor of products from more than one manufacturer.

Interconnection
The connection of one telecommunication carrier's network to another or the connection of a piece of telephone equipment to the nationwide telephone network.

Internet
An unregulated, global confederation of computer networks linked through regional, private business and educational networks. An estimated 20 million people in more than 50 countries use the Internet daily. The internet began in 1969 as an attempt by the Defense Department to link universities to Pentagon researchers, while also serving the national security purpose of spreading out crucial computing tasks to a wide geographic area. Today most of the Internet's growth is in the commercial sector.

Inter-LATA
Calls originating in one LATA and terminating in a different Local-Access and Transport Areas.

Interoffice Trunk
A direct trunk between local central offices.

IntraLATA Calling
Calls originating and terminating in the same service area (LATA).

Intrastate InterLATA Calling
Calls originating in one service area (LATA) and terminating in another LATA in the same state, e.g., Indianapolis to Detroit or Indianapolis to Fort Wayne.

IP (Internet Protocol)
Used in gateways to connect networks at OSI network Level 3 and above (normally associated with Level 4 protocol TCP.)

ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
Switched network providing end - to -end digital connectivity for simultaneous transmission of voice and/or data over multiple multiplexed communications channels and employing transmission and out-of-band signaling protocols that conform to internationally defined standards. Access channels include a basic rate (two 64 Kbps ‘B’ channels + one 16 Kbps ‘D’ channel) and a primary rate (23 64 Kbps ‘B’ channels and one 64 Kbps ‘D’ channel.)

ISO (International Standards Organization)
An international organization involved in writing communications standards using the OSI Reference Model.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
A generic term for transaction systems allowing phone callers to use an ordinary tone-dialing telephone to interact with a computer through speech or dialed instructions. Each response by the caller triggers another recorded message until the transaction is completed.

IXC
An Interexchange Carrier (Long Distance Service carrier). Regulated at the Federal level and historically was independent from the local carriers.

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