Essential Guide to Telecommunications, The (3rd Edition) (Essential Guides (Prentice Hall)) [Paperback]

Annabel Z. Dodd (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130649074 | ISBN-13: 978-0130649072 | Publication Date: September 12, 2001 | Edition: 3

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The telecommunications industry encompasses hundreds of different technologies, which in turn have spawned many trade names, jargon terms, and legal definitions. Those looking for a comprehensive introduction to the technologies, laws, and marketing programs that govern telecommunications need to read The Essential Guide to Telecommunications.

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.

From the Author

A non-technical guide to the industry

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 3 edition (September 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130649074
• ISBN-13: 978-0130649072
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #820,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview of a Broad Range of Topics; limited depth, September 20, 1998

By 

Wayne Cannon "Wayne" (Healdsburg, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Telecommunications (Paperback)

This book provided an excellent overview of the very broad range of telecommunications topics, including history, telephone technologies, data technologies, protocols, and standards; from twisted-pair copper through fiber-optic, cellular, and satellite. It is a very quick read and a great introduction to anyone new to telecommunications. Its coverage is very good considering the broad range of topics covered.

It does not, however, provide much depth on any one technology. Most topics, such as ATM, SONET, etc., are covered in one to four pages each. It was significantly less than I was looking for, but I am still impressed with how well Ms. Dodd covered such a broad range of topics. Anyone with a high school education, no telecom experience, and the motivation to do it, could read and learn from this book.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best intro book around., June 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Telecommunications (Paperback)

I just started my new job with Nortel about a month ago. I came with PC and Server knowledge - minimal telecom knowledge - just some basic facts like a T1 is 1.544Mbps with 24 channels...stuff like that. I needed to get up to speed real quick, so I got this book, 'The Essential Guide To Telecommunications 2nd Ed.', Communications Systems & Networks (ISBN 0764575228) and Newton's Telecom Dictionary 16th Ed.(ISBN:1578200539). This book will be my intro book, the Communications Systems & Networks will by my intermediate/advanced book, and the Newton Telecom Dictionary for a reference. I am just about done with The Essential Guide To Telecommunications 2nd Ed. and let me tell you this book is awesome (make sure you have the 'Newton Dictionary' by your side so you can look up terms for a more in depth explanation - I bring it everywhere I go). It gives you a GREAT basic foundation of knowledge and gives some side notes that fill in the gaps. I gave it 4 stars and not 5 because I went to the publishers website and was unable to find any eror list, (errata pages) for the book - for any books for that matter...and I doubt that the book is error free, could be but I doubt it. (Sybex's website does a good job of listing errors in their books - even if there are no errors reported, they state that so that you know they're checking) Anyway, the book is GREAT and I highly recommend it - along with the other two books I mentioned. The book does lack in depth details, but that's the point of an 'intro' book...right?

Cheers.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Overview for consultant with no Telecom background, April 21, 2000

By 

Richard I. Freedman "author, 'The IT Consultant" (Lenexa, KS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Guide to Telecommunications (Paperback)

I'm an IT consultant with a good understanding and background in network design, and needed to get a quick grounding in telecom for a project. After spending a day in the bookstore,( and actually buying and returning another title), I found this book and took it home. It was the perfect overview of the subject for me! I got a good understanding of the terminology and foundation concepts, and often go back to certain sections to reinforce my understanding.

I gave it four stars rather than five because ot does have some flaws. As noted in some other reviews, the author glosses over key data communications topics like routing, bridging, VoIP. For those readers who need depth in these topics, there are better sources (Try titles by Radia Perlman or Uyless Black, for example).

For readers who need a strong fundamental understanding of telecom technologies, regulations, and implementations, this is the best general primer out there.