Lexicon   

Audiotex: Automated telephone information, such as stock prices, sports scores and personals.

Bandwidth: The width of an electrical transmission path or circuit, or a measure of the volume of communications traffic that a channel can carry. The large bandwidths of optical fibers and, to a lesser extent, coaxial cable, make possible the home delivery of large amounts of information and visual material.

Coaxial Cable: The most common wiring used by cable TV operators.

Digital/Digitized: Any type of information that can be output, transmitted and interpreted as discrete bits of binary information, using electrical or electromagnetic signals that can be modulated to convey their specific content.

Digital Compression: Many multimedia products would not be feasible today if it were not for software advancements that greatly condense the digital information needed to replicate images on a recipient's viewing screen.

Fiber Optics: Glass strands that use light waves to transmit vast amounts of digital information.

Information Superhighway: The shorthand description for the growing network of computer-based, digital communication pathways.

Interactive: Information services that permit users to respond to the information provider. Electronic mail, home shopping on TV and pay-per-view TV are all examples of interactive content.

Modem (modular-demodulator): The device that links personal computers to a telephone line, allowing them to send or receive digital information.

Multimedia: Information products that include text, audio and visual content.

Online Services: Subscription-based providers of information and entertainment that can be accessed using a personal computer and a modem.