Price Cap
A method of setting prices whereby the SMP Provider is given a limit on the average per usage (or per consumer) revenue it may collect, but within that is given flexibility on how to set the prices, and is permitted to recover profits above those cost-of-service regulation would consider reasonable, up to some limit, as an incentive to be more efficient.

Private Telecommunications Services
A Restricted Telecommunications Service provided to some Defined User Group or Groups:

• within or between contiguous premises or between premises utilising  any means appropriate for transmission and reception within such limited geographic area, or
• between any number of non-contiguous locations or premises where these are connected by transport or transport segments obtained from another Provider, including on a leased capacity basis. Within these locations or premises, the provisions of the above clause apply.

Public Telecommunications Network
Fully interconnected and integrated telecommunications systems consisting of various means of transmission and switching, used to provide a Basic Telephone Service and other Public Telecommunications services.

Packet
Block or grouping of data that is treated as a single unit within a communication network.

Packet-based
Message-delivery technique in which packets are relayed through stations in a network. See also Circuitswitched connection.

PAN
A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network used for communication among computer devices (including telephones and personal digital assistants) close to one's person. The devices may or may not belong to the person in question. The reach of a PAN is typically a few meters.

Passive infrastructure sharing
Collocation or other forms of facility sharing, including duct, building or mast sharing (Directive 2002/19/EC).

PBX
A private branch exchange (PBX) is a telephone exchange that serves a particular business or office, as opposed to one that a common carrier or telephone company operates for many businesses or for the general public.

PCM
Pulse code modulation.

PCO
Public call office.

PCS
Personal communication services.
In the United States, this refers to digital mobile networks using the 1900 Mhz frequency. In other countries, it refers to digital mobile networks using the 1800 Mhz frequency. The term Personal communications network (PCN) is also used.

PDA
Personal digital assistant.
A generic term for handheld devices that combine computing and possibly communication functions.

PDH
Plesiochronous digital hierarchy:
A technology used to transport large quantities of data over networks such as fibre-optic and microwave radio systems. PDH allows transmission of data streams that are nominally running at the same rate, but allowing some variation on the speed around a nominal rate.

Peering
The exchange of routing announcements between two Internet service providers for the purpose of ensuring that traffic from the first can reach customers of the second, and viceversa. Peering takes place predominantly at IXPs and usually is offered either without charge or subject to mutually agreed commercial arrangements.

Pharming
A cyber attack in which the hacker redirects a website's traffic to another, bogus website.

Phishing
The fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Penetration
A measurement of access to telecommunications, normally calculated by dividing the number of subscribers to a particular service by the population and multiplying by 100. Also referred to as teledensity (for fixed-line networks) or mobile density (for cellular ones), or total teledensity (fixed and mobile combined).

PLC
Power line communications.
A communication network that uses existing power lines to send and receive data by using electrical signals as the carrier. Power flows on the line at 50-60 Hz while data is sent in the 1 MHz range.

POI
Point of Interconnection – among networks.

PON
Passive optical network.
A type of full passive wave division multi-plexing (WDM) network that allows multiple locations to connect to one optical fibre strand (or wavelength) by using optical splitters to break up the wavelength of light into allocated time slots for each user. See WDM.

POP
Point of presence.

Portal
Although an evolving concept, the term portal commonly refers to the starting point, or a gateway through which users navigate the World Wide Web, gaining access to a wide range of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines and shopping malls.

PPP
Public-private partnership. An arrangement or partnership combining funding and activities of both government and private-sector entities to build network infrastructure.

PPP
Purchasing power parity. An exchange rate that reflects how many goods and services can be purchased within a country, taking into account different price levels and cost of living across countries.

Private network
A network based on leased lines or other facilities, which are used to provide telecommunication services within an organization or within a closed user group as a complement or a substitute to the public network.

Private ownership/ Privatization
The transfer of control of ownership of a state enterprise to private parties, generally by organizing the enterprise as a share company and selling shares to investors. More generally, the term is sometimes used to refer to a wide range of modalities whereby business is opened to private enterprise and investment.

Protocol
A set of formal rules and specifications describing how to transmit data, especially across a network.

PSTN
Public switched telephone network.
The public telephone network that delivers fixed telephone service.

PTO
Public telecommunication operator.
A provider of telecommunication infrastructure and services to the general public (“public” refers to the customer base). Also referred to as an operator, service provider, carrier or “telco”.

PTT
Public Telephone and Telegraph administration. See PTO.

PVR
Personal video recorder.
A device that records video in a digital format and stores the video on a disk drive or other medium. The term DVR (Digital video recorder) is also used.