Customer Reviews

Newton's Telecom Dictionary

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Learning telecommunications is difficult when you realize that this industry thrives on producing thousands of worthless acronyms. When I started out in this field, it felt like I was learning a foreign language--and I was. This book will prove invaluable to as you as you work your way through a hoarde of acronyms that most people using them can't fully explain when questioned.

Bruce from Dallas, raises a valid point, the definitions do not stand on their own to fully explain the concepts. If you are coming to Telecom for the first time, and that is what you are looking for I would recommend the "Desktop Encyclopedia of Telecommunications" by Nathan J. Muller. This book deals with fewer terms than Newton's but goes into greater detail. If that is still not enough try the "Voice and Data Communications Handbook". Newton's though is still valuable and has its place. It should be used to spell out acronyms. That is what its for and that is what its good at. I refer to it at least five times a day, and I buy every new edition. It is a valuable resource.

This is my third purchase of the dictionary and it is for home, not the office. I first purchased it about 14 years ago, as a reference book for telephony terms. As communications and data began to merge, I bought the 12th edition. The technology field has changed so much again, that I need to update my version of the dictionary. Harry Newton mentions that he adds about 100 new words a week. Over the years I have recommended this book to others, who have also found it helpful for learning what terms mean in technology. I know the book is an excellent source for telephony and it appears to be a very good source for internet and data terms. The dictionary includes some "humor" and is not hard reading. It tries to explain words for "non-techy" people, while still covering the subject and/or definitions well.

I'm the author of this dictionary. I'm biased. I need to clear things up. When Amazon first listed this dictionary for sale, it forgot to include all the enormously favorable reviews this dictionary has received in the past. The reason is that this 23rd edition has a different ISBN number to all other editions. Years ago Amazon asked me to do this so as not to confuse editions. But doing so meant that each edition starts off as though it's a new book, awaiting user feedback and user reviews. My point in writing this review is to tell you it's not a new book. It's the same book that's received all the accolades, except that it had another year of adding more definitions, cleaning up old definitions, updating standards and technology and all the good stuff my readers expect.

I'm very proud of this book. It represents over 25 years of my life. I'm also proud that so many telecom, networking and Internet companies give it to their new employees. "Welcome to this wonderful industry." they say, "There's a lot of jargon. Here's a good explanation of the most popular 23,500 business terms, technologies, standards and slang. Enjoy."

Excellent book, plenty of good informative information. Only drawback is that it is not available on CD. As a helpdesk employee it would be useful to have it in a format that could more quickly be accessed.

I am doing a Masters Degree in Computer Systems and Information Technology (through distance learning), and this is one of the most important and useful books I have bought in the respect past. You will know this when you want to feel at home with terms that are unfamiliar and which IT and Telecom professionals use daily. In my opinion, it is a must-have.

This is an excellent desk/shelf reference for just about anyone involved in the telecommunications area. Whether it be marketing, engineering, technical writing, whatever, this is an invaluable reference. The descriptions/definitions are typically a few sentences long, but some are as long as a couple pages. If used only for the meaning behind the acronyms, this would be a useful book, but it goes a little further and explains how some of the concepts/definitions actually tie into one another. This is NOT a substitute for in-depth knowlege by any means, but is a great "remind what that one means again" reference. It has been very rare that I've gone to look for some information in this book and not found it.

This book was really useful for me when I made the jump to the telecommunications industry. Being a network engineer, there were many terms in telecommunications I had never heard, or didn't really understand. This book is really convenient for quickly refreshing your mind what exactly a forgotten technical term means.

I work in telecom and use this book everyday. Mostly to look up the millions of acronyms I come across. Rarely has a term I'm looking for not shown up in this book. Definately something to keep on your desk if you work with telecom!

I haven't found a computer or telecommunication acronym that wasn't in here!

No Joke! , This book help me increase my salary in the Telecom world by 20k and in 2 months just by knowing the right words to say in an interview. This book offers every meaning to every term used in the telecom and telephony word. A great book to have on your desk or in your tool box.

oNe