Cell phone plans are complicated for a number of reasons. One is the technology, which isn’t just driven my miniaturization and power, but by a shifting set of global standards that let us talk to each other and determine how we do it. Another reason is that standard telecom company practices aren’t always pretty. Most people don’t know, for instance, that phone companies deliberately hamstring flexible standards that are supposed to help users. If you haven’t read telecom expense management literature, you might not even know if it was possible to switch carriers as easily as SIM technology should allow.

What’s SIM? What else should you know? Here are a bunch of terms that people use in the TEM business.

BAN: Business Account Number

CTN: Cellular Telephone Number

GSM: Short for “Global System for Mobile communications.” This is the most popular international mobile standard.

IMEI: International Mobile Equipment Identity. This is international serial number identifies a mobile device, but not necessarily its user.

IMSI: International Mobile Subscriber Identity. This unique number identifies a GSM network mobile subscriber. The IMSI number is stored on his or her SIM.

LD: Long Distance

OOB: “Out of Bucket.” Minutes used over those allotted by your cell phone plan.

Porting: Moving a phone from one carrier to another. The new carrier must agree to a TOR.

Pre-HUP: Upgrading a phone before being eligible to do so under a cell phone plan. Doing so incurs an additional fee.

Roaming: Receiving cellular services outside of the local area where the phone was registered.

SIM (or SIM Card): Subscriber Identity Module. This is a removable card that contains a user’s subscription information (including ISMI) and personal data. It can be swapped from phone to phone so that a user can easily switch phones. SIM Locking restricts swapping.

SIM Lock: A restriction on some GSM phones that only allows them to accept SIM cards from certain countries or networks. In North America, most new phones on extended plans are SIM Locked.

System Access Fee: A basic administrative cost that all carriers charge, regardless of the phone or service offered.

TOR: Transit of Responsibility, where one carrier agrees to take over another’s service agreement.

Tags: cell phone plans, cellular expense management, telecom expense management, tem

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 2:02 am and is filed under Cost Reduction, cellular expense management, telecom expense management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.