Essential Guide to Telecommunications, The [Paperback]

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 catalog 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 U.S. telecommunications business environment, focusing heavily on the federal breakup of AT&T in 1984 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. She then explains additional technologies; data communications and the Internet-ISDN, Frame Relay, and analog 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.

The issues and topics covered in "The Essential Guide to Telecommunications" are based on the concerns of end-user clients that I work with in my consulting practice. I also rely heavily on feedback from adults, all of whom work in telecommunications, who take my classes at Northeastern University. They include staff that manage their frim's telecommunications systems and people that work with or for telephone companies. My book is based on practical, everyday issues that carriers, customers and people that work with telecommunications firms need to understand.

Over 125,000 copies of the first two editions of "The Essential Guide to Telecommunications" were sold. Moreover, it has been translated into ten languages worldwide including Chinese, Russian and Portuguese. The Wharton School, MIT and other major universities and schools worldwide use it in courses on telecommunications. In addition, telephone companies, consulting firms, law firms and financial services companies have purchased my book for employees who need to understand telecommunications but want a book with non-technical descriptions of technology.

Along with explanations of technology, I have included examples of applications and historical highlights. I explain how the industry evolved and the technology changed. The stories and descriptions that accompany the technical details are key to the book.