telecom

noun

tel·​e·​com ˈte-li-ˌkäm 

plural telecoms

1

: telecommunication

2

: the telecommunications industry

A lot of smart and experienced people lost money investing in telecom …

—The Wall Street Journal

—often used before another noun

telecom companies/services

the telecom industry

But questions remain about how the telecom giant will shift its strategy and whether it will be able to do it fast enough to catch up with tech giants …

—Melissa Repko

Examples of telecom in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Soviet Union was a military and ideological competitor, but China, in tech domain after domain, Warner says — from telecom and 5G to AI, quantum computing and biotech — is a different kind of competitor. —Krysta Escobar, CNBC, 6 Dec. 2025

Verizon, one of the nation’s largest telecom firms, announced plans to cut 13,000 jobs in November. —Steve Kopack, NBC news, 4 Dec. 2025

The third case focuses on alleged favors to a telecoms company in exchange for positive coverage. —Daniel Orton, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Nov. 2025

Others contributing to relief funds and support include e-commerce giant Alibaba, fintech company Ant and the foundation of both companies’ founder Jack Ma as well as telecom operator China Mobile and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. —Lily Templeton, Footwear News, 27 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1953, in the meaning defined at sense 1