ting of a
central conducting wire, surrounded by and insulated from a cylindrical
conducting shell; a large number of telephone channels can be made
available within the insulated space by the use of a large number of
carrier frequencies.
Comsat - Communications Satellite Corporation (US).
DSN - Defense Switched Network (formerly Automatic Voice Network or
Autovon); basic general-purpose, switched voice network of the Defense
Communications System (US Department of Defense).
Eutelsat - European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Paris).
fiber-optic cable - a multichannel communications cable using a thread
of optical glass fibers as a transmission medium in which the signal
(voice, video, etc.) is in the form of a coded pulse of light.
GSM - a global system for mobile (cellular) communications devised by
the Groupe Special Mobile of the pan-European standardization
organization, Conference Europeanne des Posts et Telecommunications
(CEPT) in 1982.
HF - high frequency; any radio frequency in the 3,000- to 30,000-kHz
range.
Inmarsat - International Maritime Satellite Organization (London);
provider of global mobile satellite communications for commercial,
distress, and safety applications at sea, in the air, and on land.
Intelsat - International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
(Washington, DC).
Intersputnik - International Organization of Space Communications
(Moscow); first established in the former Soviet Union and the East
European countries, it is now marketing its services worldwide with
earth stations in North America, Africa, and East Asia.
landline - communication wire or cable of any sort that is installed on
poles or buried in the ground.
Marecs - Maritime European Communications Satellite used in the
Inmarsat system on lease from the European Space Agency.
Marisat - satellites of the Comsat Corporation that participate in the
Inmarsat system.
Medarabtel - the Middle East Telecommunications Project of the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) providing a modern
telecommunications network, primarily by microwave radio relay, linking
Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen; it was initially started in
Morocco in 1970 by the Arab Telecommunications Union (ATU) and was
known at that time as the Middle East Mediterranean Telecommunications
Network.
microwave radio relay - transmission of long distance telephone calls
and