Author Annabel Z. Dodd begins by pointing out that telecommunications technologies have everything to do with signals moving over media. She then goes on to catalogue some of the various kinds of signals and media, covering traditional switched telephone service, dedicated lines, public branch exchanges (PBXs) and automatic call distributors (ACDs) along the way. After that foray into technology, she gets into the US telecommunications business environment, focusing heavily on the federal break-up of AT&T in 1984 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. She then explains additional technologies: datacommunications; the Internet-ISDN, Frame Relay, and analogue modems all get attention. The author also pays plenty of attention to wireless solutions, including satellite communications.

Unlike Newton's Telecom Dictionary (which remains an excellent resource), this book can be successfully read from start to finish by a reader with practically no telecommunications' knowledge at the outset. Read and understand--that's what good technical books, like this one, enable you to do. --David Wall --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Every business decision-maker needs to understand telecommunications: its costs, risks, and breakthrough opportunities for competitive advantage. With The Essential Guide to Telecommunications, Third Edition you can -- even if you have no technical background at all. Leading consultant Annabel Z. Dodd covers all the fundamental concepts you need to understand the industry, and make smarter buying decisions. This new Third Edition has been updated with up to the minute coverage of today's most critical issues, including the rapid globalization of telecommunications, breakthrough optical networking technologies, the latest progress towards digital convergence, speech recognition, next-generation 3G wireless networks, and much more. Dodd covers the powerful new roles played by IP networking in telephony, streaming media, and the state-of-the-art in computer-telephony integration, PBXs, Automatic Call Distributors and other call center technology. Along the way, you'll master all the basics of telecommunications, including: the differences between analog and digital signals; what bandwidth is; why protocols and architectures matter; the role of the public network; the continuing evolution of the Internet; and more.