In the English language there are many words that have multiple meanings.  This weekend I had a discussion with my son about the word to, two and too.  It’s a simple word, but if you’ve ever tried explaining the differences to a 7 year old, things get confusing very quickly.  In the telecom world there is confusion about the word ”T-1″.  There are T-1′s for voice, T-1′s for moving data from one point to another, T-1′s for both voice and data, and T-1′s to the Internet.  It’s not enough to just ask, “Will a T-1 work for you?”  There are always additional questions to ask and topics to discuss, all of which usually involve a white board.  

Coming in a close 2nd place is “ethernet” – what does that mean?  You might say,”oh, you should entertain getting that over Ethernet”.  Of course like with T-1, any conversation about Ethernet regardless of who the carrier is will have you circling around a white board using many marker colors to explain.  Is it Ethernet on fiber?  Ethernet on copper?  fast E?, Gigabit E? – “I have a headache already” says the potential customer.  Nick Pidgeon offers a great explanation on Ethernet at this “how stuff works” site.

I have friends that think I’m speaking Klingon when I begin talking about my week.  Here’s me speaking Klingon, “NUQ DAQ YUJ DA’POL – NOOKH DAHKH YUJE DAH’POLE!”.  A rough translation is, “I love chocolate”, but I have no idea how to pronounce this.  Visit the next Star Trek convention in your city to find a Klingon.  Check out this site to find how to speak this crazy language.  Very funny! 

Explaining T-1 and Ethernet options to customers is what agents and sales professionals in our industry thrive on and love to do – it’s why we wake up every morning. 

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