Ohio Phone Service
PRI (Primary Rate Interface) – Connects to a customer-provided telephone system. Each channel can handle one (1) conversation.
DID (Direct Inward Dialing) – A telephone number used for calling into a company's private branch exchange (PBX) system. DID allows a company to offer unique phone numbers for each employee or device without requiring a physical line for each. For example, a company may have 100 phone numbers but only eight physical lines.
DID Number – A single Direct Inward Dialing number (telephone number).
Block of 20 DIDs – Twenty (20) Direct Inward Dialing numbers (telephone numbers).
POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) – Standard analog telephone lines not delivered over IP.
Analog Line – An analog line delivered over IP for use with analog voice or fax machines.
Toll-Free Number – A telephone number billed to the receiving party instead of the calling party. For callers using landlines, toll-free calls are free of charge.
VCTS (Vision CTS) – Vision CTS, LLC.
SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) – A standard for initiating, controlling, and terminating interactive user sessions, such as Internet telephone calls.
SIP Trunk – A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service based on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) by which VCTS delivers telephone services to customers with SIP-based private branch exchanges (IP-PBX).
Hosted IP Phone – A single IP phone used for business service. No phone system equipment is located at the customer site; all equipment is hosted in VCTS data centers.
Auto Attendant – A feature that allows callers to be automatically transferred to an extension without the intervention of a live operator or receptionist. Limited to a simple menu system (“For sales, press 1. For service, press 2,” etc.).
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) – See Auto Attendant. While similar, IVR is broader in scope. Whereas an Auto Attendant routes calls, an IVR can perform a variety of functions (e.g., telephone banking, account inquiries). Speech recognition and dynamically generated audio are key features of IVR technology.
Find Me / Follow Me – A feature that enables incoming calls to be received at different locations or devices. “Find Me” refers to the ability to receive calls at any location. “Follow Me” refers to the ability to ring multiple designated phones either simultaneously or in sequence.
e-Fax – The use of Internet Protocol to send a fax (facsimile), instead of traditional phone networks and fax machines.
Router Lease – Rental of a router provided by VCTS for customer use at the service site.
Gateway Lease – Rental of a voice gateway provided by VCTS for customer use at the service site.
Monitoring – A service that continuously monitors a computer network for slow or failing components, with the capability of notifying the administrator (via email, SMS, or other alerts) in case of outages. Monitoring is a critical component of network management. Unreturned Equipment Fee – A fee applied if a customer fails to return VCTS-owned equipment (such as a router or gateway).