Meaning & use
telecom
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The industry or business of providing phone, mobile and internet communication services.
Grammar: Usually uncountable; often used before another noun: a telecom company.
Patterns
- work in telecom
- the telecom industry
My brother has worked in telecom for twenty years.
Telecom stocks fell after the new regulations were announced.
The government is investing heavily in rural telecom networks.
nouncountableinformal
A company that provides such services.
Grammar: Countable: several telecoms, a major telecom.
Patterns
- a telecom such as something
The telecom raised its monthly prices again.
Three telecoms bid for the new spectrum licenses.
She left a bank to join a telecom in Mumbai.
Word forms
| plural | telecoms |
|---|
Common combinations
- telecom company
- The telecom company promised faster internet.
- telecom industry
- The telecom industry is changing quickly.
- telecom provider
- Choose a telecom provider with good coverage.
- telecom giant
- A telecom giant bought the smaller network.
- telecom infrastructure
- Storms damaged the local telecom infrastructure.
Synonyms and how they differ
- telecommunications
- This is the full, more formal form, better for official writing.
- carrier
- Carrier means the company providing your phone service, which is narrower than telecom the whole sector.
- network operator
- This is a technical term for a company running the network itself rather than the whole industry.
Word family
- telecommunications noun
- the full word
- telecommunicate verb
- to communicate at a distance
- telecommuter noun
- a person who works from home by using a network
Commonly confused: telecom or telecommute?
telecom vs telecommute
Telecommute means to work from home using the internet, while telecom is the industry that provides the connection.
Practice
Maria works for a large ____ company that builds mobile networks.
Choose one answer.
Telecom is the industry or business of communication services, and company follows naturally. A telescope is an instrument and telepathy is not an industry.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “telecom”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.