Glossary of terms

The following is a glossary of the terms and acronyms you may encounter when dealing with fibre providers and prospective retail service providers.

ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line - A DSL line where the upload and download speeds differ - the download speed is usually faster than the upload speed.  See also Digital Subscriber Line (DSL).  ADSL typically provides up to 8Mbps download and 1Mbps upload speeds.

ADSL 2/ADSL2+/VDSL ADSL2, ADSL2+ and VDSL technologies are upgraded versions of ADSL and are available only where the local exchange has been upgraded or cabinets installed. They can provide up to 24 Mbps download speeds but only for premises that are close to the exchange or cabinet.

Cabinets - A road-side cabinet on a cable route containing electronics that extend the exchange equipment to schools or where people live etc.

CFH Crown Fibre Holdings Limited (CFH) - has been established to manage the Government's $1.5 billion investment in ultra-fast broadband infrastructure. 

CIR - The committed information rate (CIR) or basic agreed speed, is the rate at which the network supports data transfer under normal operations. The CIR is measured in bits per second.

Data cap - Data cap or Usage Cap - Monthly data download limit. If your usage during a month goes over the data cap, then either the connection speed is slowed or the user is billed for the additional usage.

ISP - Internet Service Provider (or Retail Service Provider) – is a company that offers broadband service/access to the Internet. For example Xtra, Orcon, Whoosh.

LFC - Local Fibre Company.

MED - Ministry of Economic Development – a government agency with the overall responsibility for the national roll out. The MED is also procuring and managing rural providers.

MoE - Ministry of Education – informs and supports schools through the process of connecting to and using fibre. It does not control the timeframes for the roll out, or the coverage areas.

NAP - The Network access point (NAP) is the point on a local fibre cable where the drop cable is connected.

NID - A Network Interface Device (NID) is a device that serves as the demarcation point between the carrier’s local loop and the customer’s premises wiring.

ONT - Optical Network Terminal (ONT) is a point-to-point, fibre to the premises network architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to enable a single optical fibre to serve multiple premises.

POI - Point of Interconnect - the geographical location where two networks interconnect and exchange traffic.

PIR - Peak Information Rate – the maximum rate for traffic arriving at or departing from the interface under peak line conditions. Traffic that exceeds the committed information rate (CIR) and the committed burst size (CBS) is metered to the PIR.

PON - A passive optical network (PON) is a point-to-multipoint, fibre to the premises network architecture.

Router - Router helps multiple devices to share a single broadband connection.

RSP - Retail Service Provider - or Internet Service Provider - (RSP or ISP) is a company that offers broadband service/access to the Internet. For example Xtra, Orcon, Whoosh.

SDP - Service Delivery Point.

SLA - Service Level Agreement or SLA is a part of a service contract where the level of service is formally defined. ISPs/RSPs will commonly include service level agreements within the terms of their contracts with customers to define the level(s) of service being sold in plain language terms.The SLA records a common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees, and warranties.

SNUP - The School Network Upgrade Project subsidises and manages upgrades of data and electrical internal cabling for state and state-integrated schools.

UFB - Ultra-fast broadband is broadband that is capable of speeds up to 100 megabits/secondUpload/Upstream Data transfer from the user to the Internet.