4:30 AM -- PARIS -- Wherever you go these days, people are talking about PBT, the controversial new "flavor" of Ethernet that's being pushed hard by Nortel Networks Ltd. and supported by BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA). (See BT Likes Nortel's New Ethernet Flavor and BT Rethinks 21CN Core Strategy.)

It didn't take long for the topic to crop up here at the Broadband World Forum Europe event. There was I, thinking that PBT stood for Provider Backbone Transport.

But I was swiftly corrected by an executive from a large European vendor.

"I heard it stands for Proposition for British Telecom," says the executive with deadpan delivery.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

— Ray Le Maistre, Acronyms Editor, Light Reading