[V]

Value added network (VAN) – A public data communications network that provides basic transmission facilities (generally leased by the VAN vendor from a common carrier) plus additional, enhanced services such as computerized switching, temporary data storage, error detection and correction, electronic mail service and packet switching.

Variance – Difference between the expected or planned and the actual.

Vertical marketing – (1) Focusing resources on carefully selected industry groups. (2) Offers designed and marketed to appeal to a specific industry group, such as: financial which contains banks, mutual funds and insurance companies.

Very severe burst (VSB) – Interval between 2.5 and 10 seconds in which the background error rate (BER) exceeds 10-2; can alternatively be defined as three to ten consecutive severely errored seconds (SES).

Via net loss (VNL) – The lowest loss in decibel (dB) at which a trunk facility can be operated considering limitations of echo, crosstalk, noise and singing.

Video – Data displayed on the screen of a CRT.

Videoconferencing – Two-way telecommunications service with live transmission of pictures and speech of conference participants transmitted between two or more locations.

Videotex – An interactive information network that enables a home user with a telephone line, a decoder and television to access a mainframe computer which then displays both text and graphic information.

Virtual banding – (1) A means of assigning calls to bands determined by originating and terminating NPAs, rather than by assigned circuits. (2) A method of rating calls based on distance sensitive pricing developed for NPA-to-NPA pairs.

Voice activation – Method in which spoken messages, rather than electrical signals from a telephone keypad, initiate call processing.

Voice connecting arrangement – An access arrangement provided by the telcos to accommodate the connections of non-carrier provided voice terminal equipment to the public switched telephone network.

Voice frequency (VF) – Any of the frequencies in the 300 to 3400 Hz band which must be transmitted to reproduce the voice with reasonable fidelity.

Voice grade – (1) An access line suitable for voice, low-speed data, facsimile or telegraph service. (2) A line that generally has a frequency range of about 300 to 3000 Hz.

Voice grade facility (VGF) – Circuit designed to DDD network standards, making it suitable for voice, low-speed data, facsimile or telegraph service.

Voice recognition – System of sound sensors that translate the tones of the human voice into computer commands to access or accomplish some service.

Voice response unit (VRU) - Device that accepts a coded request for data, composes a coded response and interprets the coded response into locations of stored vocabulary as output.

Voice syntheses – Computer generated sounds that simulate the human voice.

Voice-grade channel - Typically a telephone circuit used for voice communications and accommodating frequencies from 300 to 3000 Hz. Up to 10,000 Hz can be transmitted.

Voiceprint - (1) Technique for verifying an individual’s identity by his or her speech pattern. (2) An individually distinctive pattern of certain speech characteristics that can be mapped electromagnetically; the verbal equivalent of a fingerprint.