Glossary

A 10-digit long code (10DLC) number is a US-specific, carrier-sanctioned, 10-digit phone number that's used for business messaging. You might also see 10DLC referred to as an approved A2P (application-to-person) long code.

16-bit Unicode or Unicode Transformation Format (UTF-16) is a method of encoding character data, capable of encoding 1,112,064 possible characters in Unicode.

Two-Factor Authentication, also known as 2FA, is an extra layer of security that requires users to use both their online password and their mobile phone to verify their identity in order to access a service or a web app. In addition to using their service credentials to access sensitive data, the user also receives a one-time passcode or PIN number on his token or via SMS.

A system that incorporates both outbound (Mobile Terminated or MT) and inbound (Mobile Originated or MO) SMS into one fully-featured service.

2G is an acronym for second generation mobile telecommunications technology that was first launched in Finland in 1991.

3G is an acronym for third generation mobile telecommunications technology that was first introduced in 1998.

4G is an acronym for fourth generation mobile telecommunications technology.

Three-factor authentication is the use of a person’s live biometric data in addition to their security credentials and an authentication code sent by SMS.

An Access Point Name, often abbreviated as APN, is the name of a gateway between a data transmitting mobile network and another computer network, frequently the public Internet. A mobile device making a data connection must be configured with an APN to present to a carrier.

Access tokens are used in token-based authentication to allow one system access to another system's API by gathering and providing the required security data for clearance.

An AI chatbot or “conversational chatbot” is an intent-based computer program that uses artificial intelligence to bring a conversational approach to customer service.

Artificial Intelligence Markup Language aka AIML contains a collection of rules which define the conversational capabilities of the chatbot.

The alphanumeric sender ID technology allows the sender to send messages using a custom, recognizable sender ID constructed from any combination of numeric and alpha characters (0-9, a-z, A-Z, _).

Apache or Apache HTTP Server is the most used web server software on the internet.

The average hold time helps measure agent efficiency and customer response rates.

A2P is the process of sending mobile messages from a business application to a mobile user, usually via an automated process, for marketing or service reasons.

An app notification is a message or alert sent by an application to the device user. They include push notifications and in-app notifications.

Binary SMS messages allow sending of various types of rich-content, such as transferring ringtones, telephone system settings and WAP-Push via text messaging.

Biometric authentication refers to determining the identity of a person. It compares data for the person's characteristics to that person's biometric ''template'' to determine resemblance.

A blacklist is a list of message recipients that decided to opt-out of receiving further SMS messages.

Business-as-a-Service (BaaS) is a new concept in A2P messaging managed services, allowing mobile operators to run their entire A2P business - with complete customer acquisition flow and support - without any investment or risk of ownership.

Caller ID is a telecommunication service that enables users to identify incoming calls before answering.

A type of mobile payments where the purchase amount is charged to the mobile phone bill, or deducted from the prepaid balance.

CCaaS technology enables omnichannel customer service.

Click to WhatsApp is a useful feature that easily transfers customers to a chat with a live agent or chatbot.

A Cloud Contact Center allows you to connect with your audience in the digital world.

A concatenated short message service is used to overcome the limit on the number of characters that can be sent in a single SMS text message transmission (usually 160 chars).

Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) refers to a cloud-based platform that provides the ability to developers to add communication services to their applications.

Customer Satisfaction Score, aka CSAT measures customer satisfaction with a business, purchase, or conversation.

Data coverage refers to your location in which you will be able to receive and transmit data from your mobile device. If you are in an area with no data coverage, you will not be connected to the online world. This is important when tracking your IoT devices, for example.

Dual-tone Multi-frequency code is a response code that is generated when an end-user presses the numbers on a mobile or landline phone’s keypad.

Delivery reporting is a feature of SMS MT that reports back on the delivery status of every SMS message that has been sent.

E.164 an international telephone numbering plan that ensures each device on the public switched telephone network has globally unique number.

The use of sets of rules that trigger specific emails to be sent to recipients, depending on the actions they take.

Facial recognition is the power of AI which allows technology providers to authenticate end-users by matching their human face to customer records. Infobip biometrics uses facial recognition for 3-factor authentication.

Failover is enabled and used to switch over to another communication channel in cases where a primary communication channel fails to deliver a message. In other words, failovers can be considered as backup or standby channels.

Fallback options can be defined as a backup option which is reverted to when a primary option fails to make contact. They are set up to create an alternate route of contact when users find themselves in situations where they do not have access or connectivity to their ordinary means of contact.

First-call resolution is a common metric to measure customer loyalty.

A predetermined numeric sender identification (the mobile number that is displayed on the recipient's cell phone) that cannot be modified according to user needs and follows the standard MSISDN format.

A Flash SMS is a message that appears immediately on the recipient's mobile screen, without them having to open their message inbox, and then disappears for good once they dismiss it.

Geo-redundancy means placing physical servers in geographically diverse data centers to safeguard against catastrophic events and natural disasters, as well as to load balance traffic for optimal performance.

A Global Title (GT) is an address used in the SCCP protocol for routing signaling messages on various telecommunications networks.

A mobile telephony standard introduced in the early 1990s by European Telecommunications Standard Institute.

HAProxy or High Availability Proxy is a free and open source software which is most commonly used to improve the performance of a server environment by spreading requests to multiple servers and thus enhancing the speed and reliability of the server environment.

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems.

Human takeover or “agent takeover” is a fallback feature for chatbots in which a contact center agent takes over the conversation.

The HLR is a database of all active customers of a mobile network, including their number, service entitlement, and number porting history.

The ICCID Number stands for Integrated Circuit Card ID. It is a 19- or 20-digit number that's typically printed on the back of a SIM card.

The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is a unique identification or serial number that all mobile phones and smartphones have. It is usually 15 digits long. It is used in the Infobip IoT module to identify devices and track potential anomalies.

An inbound message is a mobile message routed from an end user's mobile device and delivered to a mobile phone or an application.

Intelligent Routing is a must-have feature when looking to digitally transform your contact center

In the world of chatbots, “intent” refers to the customer or user’s intention – i.e. their goal or requirement for engaging with a chatbot.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) helps your users quickly navigate interactive menus using their phone’s keypad

It is the operating system created by Apple Inc that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPod Touch.

ISO 27001 is a family of standards that deals with information security management set by the International Organization for Standardization.

ISO 9001 is a family of standards that deals with quality management set by the International Organization for Standardization.

An ISV is a software producer that is not owned or controlled by a hardware manufacturer.

An IMSI is a unique and automatically generated code stored in the SIM that identifies every mobile phone subscriber on any network globally.

A word that clients choose in order to identify their campaign and inbound SMS messages.

Keyword chatbots or “rule-based chatbots” are designed to help with simple customer service queries and frequently asked questions (FAQ).

A feature of SMS-MT that displays the timestamp of the home network local time.

With media message templates businesses can share images, documents, videos, or locations, as an attachment to provide additional relevant information.

A message template is a message format that helps businesses easily communicate with their customers over WhatsApp.

Multimedia messaging service, or MMS, is a widely used standard way to send media files over SMS over a cellular network.

A mobile message routed from an end user's mobile device and delivered to a mobile phone or an application.

Mobile data penetration represents the number of smartphones in a country.

Mobile Identity is a verification solution that consists of several real-time identification and authorization services that enable improved UX and a stronger authentication layer to protect online transactions for user-facing applications and websites on mobile.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when switching from one mobile network operator to another. Since its launch in Singapore in 1997, over a hundred markets today allow MNP. Most MNOs offer this service for free or for a nominal price, enabling users to change numbers or switch operators with ease.

MSIN stands for Mobile Subscription Identification Number. It is a unique number, consisting of maximum 10 digits, used to differentiate a mobile phone by a mobile network operator (MNO).

A number uniquely identifying a subscription in a GSM or a UMTS mobile network. An MSISDN is the phone number associated with a single SIM card, in other words, the number you call or send an SMS message to.

A mobile message routed from a client or an application and delivered to the end user’s mobile phone is a called a SMS MT (Mobile Terminated).

Multimedia message service, or MMS for short, is a channel that was built with the introduction of SMS messaging to offer the additional ability to send multimedia messages rather than just text.

MVNO stands for Mobile Virtual Network Operators.

A mobile network operator (MNO) is a telecoms entity that provides wireless voice and data services to mobile phone subscribers.

Mobile Phone Penetration refers to the number of SIM cards or mobile phone number in a certain country, it does not refer to the number of mobile phone devices.

Named entity recognition (NER) is a technique used in AI chatbots to locate and classify a user’s words into predefined categories.

Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of artificial intelligence that’s concerned with helping AI chatbots and machines to understand and process human language.

Also known as HLR (Home Location Register) Lookup or Network Query.

Numeric Sender ID is the default sender type of an SMS message in standard MSISDN form.

The opt-in function is connected with getting permission from the customer to send promotional materials and messages to his or her's email, mobile number or chat application.

The opt-out function is an action where a customer requests the stopping of sending promotional materials and messages to his or her's email, mobile number or chat application.

A feature of SMS-MT that sends over-the-air configuration messages, such as software updates, configuration settings and security locks.

An outbound message is a message routed from a client or an application and delivered to the end user’s mobile phone.

A one-time PIN code is a code that is automatically generated and sent, usually to a mobile device, to allow a single login session or transaction.

P2A (person-to-application) SMS messaging is the process of sending messages from a mobile user to an application.

P2P SMS is process of sending mobile messages from one user to another, where an SMS message travels between two mobile subscribers.

PCI DSS – PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard which is a security standard for companies and organisations that handle credit card information.

Personal Data Verification is a user data verification service within the Mobile Identity solution.

A Premium SMS number is a 3-7 digit number used for messaging that charges a premium price to the end user per sent SMS.

PSTN stands for Public Switched Telephone Network.

Push notifications are messages received by mobile devices (or other computing devices). Push notifications originate from a server and are delivered to users who have installed an app and have opted-in to receive notifications from the app. Mobile users don't have to be using the app in question or even their device to receive incoming push notifications.

RCS messaging is the next step in the evolution of SMS.

A regular expression, shortened as regex and also referred to as rational expression is a sequence of characters that specifies a search pattern.

Retry refers to the process of the SMSC retrying to deliver an SMS message that failed to be delivered during a time period the message is valid, which is usually 48 hours. If a delivery of a message fails the SMSC starts a retry procedure that tries to deliver the message periodically.

Roaming is a term that refers to the ability of a mobile phone user to use his mobile phone for making or receiving voice calls, sending or receiving messages and data while travelling outside the coverage of his mobile service provider. The mobile phone uses the subscriber’s identity to access the network in the visited country.

RTP stands for Real-time Transport Protocol. The protocol is used for delivering audio and video over IP networks.

SaaS softwares are the new wave of digital transformation

A chip card that stores the IMSI, and serves to identify the mobile subscriber and provide mobile service. A SIM card also can serve as a memory storage device, e.g. to store contacts or SMS messages, network information or apps particular to the mobile user’s mobile operator.

SIM box detection is a way to detect fraudulent application-to-person (A2P) messaging.

SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol. It is used to set up and control a part of a voice call. SIP is paired with RTP – a protocol for media content delivery.

A service-level agreement (SLA) is an agreement between two or more parties, where one is the customer and the others are service providers and is a part of a service contract where a service is formally defined. SLA agreement defines the level of service quality, availability of service and the procedure of reporting and resolving problems that occur.

SMIL or Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (pronounced "smile") is used for rich media which integrate audio and video streaming with other media type.

The short message peer-to-peer protocol (SMPP) is a telecommunications industry protocol for exchanging SMS messages between SMS peer entities such as short message service centers (SMSCs).

Mobile telecom company with multiple agreements with mobile operators to send and receive data in and out of the operator's SMSC, acting as an intermediary between companies (i.e. content and brand owners) that want to interact with end users (through their mobile phones; i.e. via SMS) and mobile operators.

Distribution of mobile messages, including SMS and Premium SMS, directly to the end-users' mobile devices.

An SMS gateway is, generally speaking, a point of entry or exit for SMS messages. It is a network node equipped for interfacing with another network that uses the same or different protocols. The most common protocols used are SMPP, HTTP, UCP/EMI and SOAP.

An A2P SMS gray route is a route that support SMS traffic but doesn’t generate revenue for telecoms.

A new structure for international SMS traffic, reshaping international mobile inter-operability by implementing hubs to intermediate SMS traffic and offer a larger SMS coverage. The GSM Association (GSMA) found in SMS hubbing the solution to a problem that limits the continuing growth of international SMS, culminating with the development of SMS hubbing trials in 2006, part of the Open Connectivity project.

SMS termination refers to the delivery of an SMS message either from one mobile user to another (P2P) or from an application to a mobile user (A2P). It signifies that the message was delivered to a mobile phone user.

SMS transliteration is a process of message text conversion from one script to another. It is used, for example, to transform a text written in Greek or Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet. The transliteration process does not translate the message, it converts it into another alphabet and offers easiness of reaching an international base of users.

A short message service center (SMSC) is a mobile telecommunication networks element which stores, forwards, converts and delivers SMS messages and maintains unique timestamps in text messages.

Signaling System #7 (SS7) is a set of telephony signaling protocols which are used to set up most of the world's public switched telephone calls, also used in mobile messaging, prepaid billing and other applications.

A short code is a five- to six-digit mobile number used by businesses to send and receive both SMS and MMS messages – either as part of marketing activity or usual business operations.

Text-to-Speech is Infobip’s automated service that converts written text into an audio file. It’s being used as a feature of the Voice messages service.

This SMS-MT feature allows senders to manage originator and destination settings.

User Data Header (UDH) is a binary structure which may be present at the start of a short message in an SMS. It does not contain any text, but rather specifies how the message should be processed. Basically, it's a part of the SMS which tells the receiving handset what type of message being sent. This is done to ensure correct SMS message delivery.

Industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the world's writing systems. As an SMS MT feature, it allows any content to be sent within a message.

USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a session-based text communication protocol available on every GSM-enabled mobile device.

USSD centre is a collection of hardware and software required to interconnect two or more disparate networks, including performing protocol conversion and is based upon the ability of the delivery agent or the source to send and receive USSD messages. It routes USSD messages from the signaling network to a service application and back and is often reffered to as „USSD gateway“.

Voip or Voice over Internet Protocol is a technology that allows phone service over the Internet by transmitting voice over Internet Protocol networks.

VPN or Virtual Private Network is a private network that enables users to send and receive data securely across a public network while having the benefits of a private network.

VPN tunnelling is a concept that refers to sending and receiving data over a VPN securely.

A VLN is a 12 digit mobile number provided to businesses by mobile messaging providers, that can be used to receive both SMS messages and voice calls.

Webhooks are automated messages sent from webs pages or apps to notify when something happens.

WAP Push is a mechanism for directing an SMS recipient to a website or landing page without them having to enter a URL in the phone’s browser.

WhatsApp Business API enables medium and large businesses to reach out to 2 billion customers through a single interface.

Workforce optimization is an essential strategy element for contact centers.

The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is used for describing the functionality offered by a web service.