Bandwidth: The range of frequencies, expressed in hertz (Hz), that can pass over a given transmission channel. The bandwidth determines the rate at which information can be transmitted through the circuit.

Broadcast: A signal transmitted to all user terminals in a service area, or the process.

Digital: Referring to communications techniques and procedures whereby information is encoded as binary language, as opposed analog representation of information in variable, but continuous, wave forms. Electronic mail: each Internet user can have his or her own address for electronic mail messaging. It is possible to exchange text, documents, graphics and multimedia messages like voice mail and video mail.

GPRS: General Packet Radio Service

Multivideoconference: a videoconference among several user groups. The meeting is usually managed by a chairman that decides who is authorized to speak

Near Video on Demand: multiple copies of the same movie are distributed at regular time intervals; the user can view the copy that is going to start next and can move "forward" and "backward" among the different copies.

Network: A term used to describe various communication interconnections. There is a communication network, a computer network and the public switched telephone network. There are also others in the system.

Newsgroups: thousands of discussion groups are currently active over the Internet, sharing information among millions of people. The news groups cover virtually every subject, ranging from science to entertainment, from sports to children's education, from nature to computing, it is like a huge database spread around the world.

Remote education: the Video on Demand technology can be successfully applied to computer-based training and in students' education with teacher-student interactivity.

SMS: Short Message Service - Short text messages that can be sent to a mobile phone.

TDMA: Time Division Multiple Access - a technology for delivering digital wireless service using time-division multiplexing (TDM). TDMA works by dividing a radio frequency into time slots and then allocating slots to multiple calls. In this way, a single frequency can support multiple, simultaneous data channels. TDMA is used by the GSM digital cellular system.

Teleshopping: shopping in a virtual mall with payment using your credit card.

Teleworking/Homeworking: a multimedia communication service for remote access to the company's resources.

Video on Demand: a fully interactive video service in which the end user can request and control a personal copy of a desired movie, just like with a VCR.

Videoconference: a multimedia service for business users to allow participation in conferences or meetings of remote users.

Videotelephony: the traditional telephony service is enriched with speakers' real-time images.

Web browsing: using a navigation tool running on a personal computer, users can "move" among the Web servers within the Internet, selecting information, viewing images or moving pictures and downloading applications. The application interface is very user-friendly: users can browse the information by means of simple point-and-click operation with the mouse. The Web pages are built as hypertext, containing links to other Web pages elsewhere in the Web that can be accessed by clicking on the link icon.