CPaaS Meaning : Glossary of Cloud Communications & Mobile Marketing Terms

10 DLC, also known as commercial long codes, support the high-volume messaging throughput that businesses need to send out bulk messages. 10 DLC can be considered as an upgraded version of the A2P messaging. Most of the companies opt for 10DLC because of its capability of sending 100,000 text messages/month with a send rate of 15 messages/second.

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The term API stands for Application Program Interface. It is a software intermediary that enables two software apps to interact with each other. In other words, an API is a set of programming code that enables data transmission between two software applications.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the capability instilled in machines to mimic the natural intelligence displayed by humans. AI can demonstrate cognitive behaviors like problem-solving, reasoning, learning, planning, and knowledge representation. Depending on how the systems incorporating AI need to be used, it is programmed differently.

An app notification is an alert sent by an application to the end-user. Such notifications do not require the application to be open. Messages are usually displayed on the mobile screen even when the mobile devices are locked.

Application-to-Person Messaging refers to text or multimedia messages that are sent by businesses to end-users. Unlike Person-to-Person messaging, A2P Messaging allows businesses to automate text messages for various purposes, such as sending promotional messages, appointment reminders, OTPs, or alerts.

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The global A2P SMS market size is predicted to grow to USD 72.8 billion by 2025. With A2P messaging emerging to be a powerful tool for enterprise business communication, the A2P market is only seeing an upward trend.

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An AI chatbot is an intent-based computer program that leverages the power of artificial intelligence to bring in a conversational approach to customer service.

Automatic Number Identification is a feature used by telephone service providers to track the number of a caller. This feature is also offered to businesses to help them identify who is calling them. The line type and the phone number of a calling party are recorded, even if the caller ID blocking is on. Automatic Number Identification’s functionality is similar to that of Caller-ID, however, the technology used to track numbers is completely different.

Automatic Location Identification is an intelligent electronic location system that automatically displays a caller’s number and addresses when they call an emergency responder service such as fire departments or police departments. Whether the callers dial in via mobile devices or landline, ALI makes it easier for emergency responders to locate the caller’s address quickly.

The alphanumeric sender ID technology enables a sender to set their business name as the Sender ID when sending one-way text messages to supported countries. Usually, the alphanumeric Sender IDs can be as long as 11 characters, and the accepted characters are a-z, A-Z, and 0-9. Alphanumeric Sender ID can significantly increase your SMS open rates. The recipients will also know who the sender is because the sender name is mostly personalized to include a company’s brand name. Kaleyra helps businesses create their own sender IDs to communicate with end-users. Click here to learn how.

Often enterprises trigger SMS to a large volume of customers in one go. This is known as Bulk SMS. Click here to read more.

B2B simply means business-to-business, which is a business model that focuses on selling products and services to other companies. Let us take for example all those companies that through their products and services help other companies succeed or boost their revenue.

B2C also known as Business to Consumer is a term that is used to describe a direct commercial transaction between a business and its consumers.

Call Masking refers to the technique of masking a telephone number to keep your personal number private. Call Masking is made possible by cloud communication solution providers like Kaleyra, where a business can set up phone number proxies to keep parties from knowing each other’s phone numbers during a call. The same technique can also allow the parties to send SMS to each other without revealing their personal phone numbers.

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A chatbot can be defined as an AI-based computer program that simulates human conversations. They are also known as digital assistants that understand human capabilities. Bots interpret and process the user requests and give prompt relevant answers. Bots can interact through voice as well as text and can be deployed across websites, applications, and various popular messaging channels.

Click-to-call refers to a type of digital communication in which a person clicks a button or text in order to be connected with another individual in real-time. These click-to-call links are commonly found as buttons on websites or mobile applications.

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Click-to-Dial is a browser-based plugin that allows users to auto-dial any number with one click.

Cloud telephony is a type of unified communications as a service that offers voice communication services through a third-party host. It replaces the need for conventional enterprise telephone systems, such as private branch exchange (PBX). Cloud telephony services can be web- or applications-based.

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CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) is a cloud-based model that empowers organizations to interact with customers through the implementation of API-based communication capabilities. CPaaS solutions are widely used by organizations worldwide. According to  Gartner, 95% of enterprises around the globe will use CPaaS platforms by 2025.  

Contact Center as a Service is a customer experience solution that allows businesses to access all the separate components that make up a traditional contact center via any channel such as Voice, email, SMS, etc.

Concatenated SMS enables you to send longer text messages without the content being split in a way that may confuse the recipient. Businesses use this method to overcome the limitation of the number of characters sent in a single SMS (usually 160). Lengthy messages are split into smaller messages by the sending device and are recombined at the receiving end.

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Caller ID is a popular telephone feature that is used to identify the phone numbers of incoming calls. Businesses can integrate the caller ID feature with their customer databases for streamlining call management processes. This integration gives the person receiving a call quick access to relevant information about the caller. Kaleyra Cloud offers an API that can validate phone numbers and collect details of a phone number. Click here to learn more.

Contact center infrastructure consists of both software and hardware components that are required to run a contact center. This includes IVR units, automatic call distributors, cloud-telephony integration, and universal queue management. Contact centers enable companies to actively stay in touch with customers and improve their experience. Learn how you can improve customer experience with cloud contact centers.

Call detail records are used to capture details on calls made on telephone systems. Some of the details captured include the name and the number of the caller, the name and number of the receiver, the date and time when the call was made, and the call duration. With the help of CDR, mobile service providers will be able to generate phone bills and provide a detailed break-up of calls made by their customers.

Cloud Communication platform provides easy implementation of business communication capabilities over multiple channels such as voice, chat, and video. In addition, cloud-based solutions also allow easy integration with CRM and marketing tools and provide an integrated communication solution. 

Read more about Cloud Communication Platform here.

Communication service providers are those companies that transport information related to telecommunications, entertainment, applications, media, and other information services over a physical network. Communication service providers can include a network of cable companies, TV broadcasting operators, ISPs, mobile carriers, etc. CSP providers can help businesses reduce network complexity, maximize connectivity, and achieve tremendous commercial success with their services.

Conversational AI refers to technologies such as virtual assistants or chatbots, which end-users can interact with. They use Machine Learning, large volumes of data, and Natural Language Processing to imitate human interaction, understand speech/text inputs, and translate meaning across multiple languages. Learn how Chatbots can be used in the modern-day business setup.

A delivery report or DLR is the notification you receive when the SMS sent from your number has been delivered successfully.

E-commerce or Electronic commerce is a business model that lets companies and individuals purchase and sell things over the internet.

Flow Builder makes communication easy for everyone. With a flow builder, one can create communications workflow for Voice, SMS, and Webhooks without a single line of code. It can be used for automating, prototyping, and connecting communications flows with your customers within minutes.

Developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) is a system of standardized protocols applicable for mobile devices using a 2G (second-generation) digital cellular network.

Home Location Register is a database that contains various information related to mobile subscribers of a mobile network such as their mobile numbers, the services they have opted for, their number porting history (if any), or any other similar information.

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is a protocol that allows communication between different systems. It is used for transferring data from a web server to a browser to view web pages.

It refers to the incoming calls a business’ contact center receives from its customers. Inbound calling is sometimes also referred to as reactive support, wherein the customers initiate the conversation and businesses react to it.

Internet Protocol is a guide for transmitting data across the internet. It is responsible for routing data from source hosts to destination hosts.

Interactive Voice Response is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF tones input via a keypad. In telecommunications, IVR allows customers to interact with a company’s host system via a telephone keypad or speech recognition, after which services can be inquired about through the IVR dialogue. IVR systems can respond with pre-recorded audio messages to direct users on how to proceed.

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An International Mobile Subscriber Identity is a unique number that identifies every user in a GSM and UMTS network.

The term ICT refers to all the technologies used to handle digital communications.ICT can utilize internet, computer-based, or mobile-based technology to make communication services available to a wide range of users. Businesses worldwide can take advantage of the power of ICT as it can help in increasing productivity in the workplace, bring down operational expenses, and improve customer experiences. Its scope keeps expanding as modern-day IP-based networks take a more prominent role in B2C and B2B relationships with new elements such as the IoT.

A local number is one that starts with an area code specifically for a particular region, city, or state.

Lookup is a feature that can be used to validate users’ phone numbers and get information about the phone number.

A long code SMS is a 10-digit standard phone number used to send messages. Businesses prefer long codes because it is great for building trust amongst customers

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Mobile marketing refers to campaigns that target mobile device users. It invoves digital marketing strategies used to connect with customers on mobile devices. Mobile campaigns empower businesses to implement multi-channel marketing tools to reach users through SMS, MMS, social media,  E-mail, or mobile applications. 

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A mobile network operator is an organization that provides wireless data and voice communications services to its subscribed users. Usually, these companies control all the essential elements to provide services to their subscribers, including network infrastructure, radio spectrum allocation, and other vital components.

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A mobile phone number is a telephone number like any other telephone number. The difference is that it is registered to a mobile phone/mobile network, instead of a fixed or VoIP phone/network.

Mobile Number Portability is a facility that allows mobile users to retain their phone numbers when they switch from one network operator to another, irrespective of the geographical location.

Mobile Subscription Identification Number refers to the ten-digit unique number used by mobile network operators (MNO) to Identify a mobile phone.

The term Mobile Terminated refers to an SMS message sent from a client application and delivered to the recipient’s mobile device. This can also refer to the voice calls that are transferred to a user’s mobile device from other mobile users. The word “terminated” conveys that the messages are delivered to a specific mobile device.

Mobile Virtual Network Operators are those organizations that offer mobile services but do not necessarily have the infrastructure that is required to provide mobile phone services.

Multi-Factor Authentication is a security system that verifies a user’s identity by requiring multiple credentials. It is a vital component of identity and access management. Multi-Factor Authentication requires a user to provide certain additional details apart from his username and password, such as an OTP code from the user’s smartphone or an answer to a security question, in order to grant access to the user.

Multichannel retail refers to the selling of your products and services on different (multiple) channels, wherein each avenue acts independently from each other.

NLP, also known as Natural language processing, is a subfield of artificial intelligence that assists AI chatbots in understanding and processing human language.

Omnichannel selling offers a unified brand experience to customers irrespective of the channel they are on. For instance, under omnichannel retail, a brand would facilitate the same experience on its offline and online outlets.

An OTP is used to validate the authenticity of the user. As the name suggests, it is a one-time-password and expires after each session. The OTP can be purely numeric or alphanumeric. It is often used as one of the modes to verify the user’s identity during 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) or MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication).

Outbound calling refers to the outgoing calls a business initiates to exisiting or prospective customers. They are generally handled by the company’s contact center executives.

Person-to-Application messaging is the process of sending messages from a mobile user to an application. The process requires the end-user to start the interaction with a business or company by sending an SMS to an application.

Person-to-person messaging can be defined as a two-way messaging conversation between two users via mobile phones or similar devices.

Phishing is a fraudulent attack meant to steal confidential and identification information of the victim. The attacker pretends to be a trusted entity and obtains information under the malicious disguise.

Sent to a short 3-7 digit number, Premium SMS is a relatively more expensive SMS service the end user pays to receive. Examples of Premium SMS include voting for a contestant, donating for charity, downloading games or ringtones, or subcribing to paid services like daily horoscope, news updates, etc.

PSTN stands for public switched telephone network. It comprises all the switched telephone networks around the world that are operated by local, national or international carriers.

Important alerts, reminders, promotional messages or related information is triggered by app publishers onto the app users’ mobile devices. These are known as Push Notifications, and can be sent irrespective of whether the user is currently on the app or not.

RCS is an upgrade of the text-focused SMS protocol. It allows businesses to send multimedia files, locations, documents to make conversations more engaging. With RCS, businesses can also track conversions, click-through rates, and read receipts of the messages sent.

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A REST API is a standardized and straightforward way for two applications to communicate via HTTP, similar to web browsers & servers. Businesses usually prefer this technology because of the flexibility it gives. For example, Businesses can use programming languages such as Python/JavaScript to build REST APIs. The technology also uses less bandwidth, making it ideal for internet services.

Businesses often subscribe to a unique number or name while sending text communication. This Sender ID is displayed in the “from” section of the customers’ inbox. It helps businesses create brand awareness and recall.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), commonly used in VoIP technology, is a signalling protocol that initiates, maintains and terminates multimedia sessions over the internet.

SMPP or Short Message Peer to Peer protocol is a general standard laid down for SMS processes, regarding how large volumes of SMS can be sent in a very fast and reliable manner. It can be incorporated into businesses that runs huge marketing campaigns, SMS voting, news updating, warnings and so forth.

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An SMS API is a well-defined software interface that enables code to send short messages via an SMS Gateway. SMS APIs are often used to bridge the gap between telecommunications carrier networks and the wider web. SMS APIs are used to allow web applications to easily send and receive text messages through logic written for standard web frameworks.

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SaaS is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet.

A short message service center is an element of a wireless network that manages messaging operations such as routing, storing, forwarding, converting, and delivering SMS messages.

A Short Code is a 4-6 digit virtual number that enables the receiving and sending text or multimedia messages. They are usually used by businesses to let consumers opt-in to their marketing campaigns, notification services, or to enter SMS contests.

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A Text-to-Speech software converts written text into an audio format. It allows businesses to have a consistent voice across all platforms.

A toll-free number allows customers to call the business for free. The cost of the toll-free call is borne by company providing the service.

Transactional messages are usually automated and allow for the prompt delivery of critical information. They can be sent in response to triggers to deliver time-sensitive and relevant information to customers.

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Two-Factor Authentication, (also known as 2FA), is an extra layer of protection used to ensure the security of online accounts beyond just a username and password.

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A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), often known as a web address, is the unique location of each resource available on the internet. It appears on the top address bar of your web browser.

Unicode SMS supports non-ASCII characters, allowing you to include emojis and send messages in languages other than English.

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The UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service) is a 3G (third-generation) mobile cellular network system based on GSM (Global System for Mobile). It can transmit text, voice, video, and multimedia at data rates up to 2 Mbps.

Unified Communications as a Service refers to a cloud-based service offering that enables enterprise communications and instant collaboration across business locations. UCaaS solutions help enterprises stay connected with their stakeholders via text, instant message platforms, voice, or video conferencing channels.

Verified SMS is a feature of Google Messages that adds sender verification and branding to a business’ SMS program to make them safer and more trustworthy. This is a step taken by google to strengthen user privacy and security, and prevent spam.

A Video API makes it easy to build a custom video experience within any mobile, web, or desktop application, and is built on the WebRTC industry standard that is available on billions of devices.

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A Virtual Long Number (VLN) is a 12-digit mobile number that businesses use to send and receive SMS or voice calls from the public. It is often used for promotional and marketing activities, like getting feedback on products, votes for reality shows, and information on international events.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) faciliates privacy for users by masking their IP addresses. It makes online activities untraceable and provides anonymity to the users. VPN is especially helpful when working from a public network.

A voice API, or application programming interface, is a software connection that enables companies to embed the ability to make and receive voice calls into their applications and networks.

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Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a technology that allows internet users to place voice calls over the internet instead of their cellular network.

VoWiFi is a WiFi-based technology that uses the internet as a mode to transmit calls and SMS messages. This technology allows users to make calls via Wi-Fi when the cellular network signals are weak. Unlike traditional calls, VoWiFi guarantees faster call connections and high definition voice quality.

VoLTE is one of the most advanced technologies that the leading mobile network operators use to deliver high-quality voice calls. Voice conversations that happen via VoLTE will sound extremely clear with reduced background noise. Apart from voice quality, users can also enjoy certain benefits such as faster connection times and longer battery life. As far as the service providers are concerned, VoLTE helps them bring down the operational costs and improve customer experience.

VNFs are those virtualized tasks that were formerly managed by dedicated hardware. Virtual Network Functions transports individual network functions from the hardware devices to software and operates on commodity hardware. VNF includes domain name systems, firewalls, or Network Address Translation, and most of the tasks can be operated via virtual machines. As far as benefits are concerned, VNFs are beneficial because of their capability to increase network scalability and optimize the usage of network resources. Businesses can considerably reduce their operational expenditure with VNFs as they can replace physical hardware and drastically reduce power consumption.

WhatsApp Business, an offering by WhatsApp, is an instant messaging app specially tailored for businesses. It allows businesses to communicate with their customer through rich media messages.

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WebRTC stands for Web Real-Time Communication. It enables real-time media communications like video, voice, and data transfer natively between browsers and devices. This allows users to communicate from within their primary web browser without the need for complicated plug-ins or additional hardware.

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