Misused Terms

[LadySlinger]

I just sat through a meeting about upgrading our phone systems. The owners son had a question in regards to the systems themselves. He asked "How many phone lines are we equipped for?"

I responded the # lines that the cards can hold (our current number of inbound/outbound lines + the lines we want to order).

He responded "I think we're talking about 2 different things". Turns out he meant phone extensions.

Then he disagreed that phone lines and phone extensions are being improperly used. That phone extensions should be used when you are referring to the phone numbers coming in (555-1212) and that phone lines are what comes from the phone system to your desk.

I don't know a lot of the phone side of systems, but I do know the difference between a phone line and an extension (one has "ext" written on it)

Anyone else have a story like this?

 

[Thadeus]

Hello LadySlinger,
When working for an ACD company and for an inbound service bureau (inbound 800#s) we always referred to the incoming lines by telephone terminology... so they would be called 'trunks'... A T1 having 24 trunks.

A company could have a relatively small number of trunks, but a very large number of "numbers" directed at those trunks, if they were pooled together.

~Thadeus

 

[gbaughma]

Trunks and stations. That's what I was taught/use.

"Phone Line" usually refers to POTS lines (Plain Old Telephone Service).

When someone asks me what our capacity is on our phone system (we have 2 T1's and 5 POTS lines), I just tell them we have the potential for 53 simultaneous connections.



Just my 2¢
"Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste." -Bonnie Raitt "Nick of Time"
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[ESquared]

I agree with you 100% LadySlinger

 

[LadySlinger]

Thanks for the correction for the lines. However when you use these terms with users, do they completely understand what you're talking about?

That's why I use the terms "lines" and "extensions" rather than "trunks" and "Stations".

So when this person completely reversed the two and thought that it was wrong to say "lines" ("trunks")...he thinks that extensions ("stations") are what come into the building from the ....

Oh nevermind.