Telecommunications Convergence: How to Profit from the Convergence of Technologies, Services, and Companies [Paperback]

Steven Shepard (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mcgraw-Hill Telecom Portable Consultant | Publication Date: May 9, 2000

A profit-making blueprint for getting ahead in the convergence market, this is the first book to address all the issues telecom providers must confront to meet the challenges of the new marketplace. In this emerging market, technology and financing alone no longer cut it.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A trend is underway in which voice and data communications are merging. The irresistible logic is that digitized voice is just another kind of data, after all; so, why not carry it on the same data links that handle all of our other ones and zeros? The economies of convergence can be considerable: there's no need to build and support separate voice and data infrastructures when you can have just one. That combination of infrastructures presents the problem that Telecommunications Convergence aims to solve: data people, who haven't worried about voice in the past, have to worry about it now. Similarly, people who used to specialize exclusively in switched voice circuits must adapt to the new environment.

In this book, Steven Shepard points out that there's more to telecommunications convergence than just moving everything across IP (or ATM or Frame Relay) networks. He sees convergence of voice and data transport technologies accelerating, yes; but he also points to a blurring of traditional business roles (witness AOL, formerly just an ISP, buying Time-Warner, a content and distribution company). He also sees the convergence of services--meaning that the consumer doesn't care which network delivers his on-demand movies or her faxes--playing a big role in the future of telecommunications. Shepard bases well-reasoned arguments on a year's worth of research, including many interviews with experts in a variety of relevant fields. Read this book for pleasure (it's written that well), and profit from the lessons that it contains. --David Wall

Topics covered: The convergence of voice and data communications as technical, commercial, and social phenomena. Technical issues like voice over IP, voice over ATM, and Quality of Service (QoS) get attention, but the more important lesson here comes from research into the convergence of services and the companies that provide them. There's an excellent glossary, plus scads of references to paper and online resources.

Review

"What everyone in a Telecom Marketing Department should know, September 20, 2000 Reviewer: [e-mail] (see more about me) from Dallas, Texas USA This is a good business model for the up and coming CLEC's, while it doesn't go into the other services to set them apart it does offer where the Tel-co world is and is heading, while explaining how things work, good Brief over view of the technologies with out going to deep. Very good lite reading, Everyone in the Marketing department in the telco world should have a copy. One last word, this is not a expensive book. Good writing and great concepts converge in this book, August 15, 2000 Reviewer: Gary Martin from Lebanon, NJ United States Simple to understand, easy to read, always interesting, and most amazingly, often entertaining. This is high praise for a "technical book." It is actually not a technical book, but it is about technical subjects, several relatively complex market concepts, and the big trends in networking. All easy to follow and recall after reading. I like Mr. Shepard's organization and style. It seemed to me that I was often hearing him speak these thoughts, rather than just reading them. I highly recommend this book to Service Providers, Network Equipment manufacturers, and to the component companies that are designing the chips for future networks. This book will jump-start your understanding of how convergence is influencing system and service designs for our future networked world. Enjoy the book, I did. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 371 pages
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1st edition (May 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071361073
• ISBN-13: 978-0071361071
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,330,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent dissection of the telecomm industry., June 18, 2000

By 

Kenneth Sato (San Ramon, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Telecommunications Convergence: How to Profit from the Convergence of Technologies, Services, and Companies (Paperback)

If you work in the telecommunications industry, you'll want to read this book. Even if you don't, this book could help you understand some the the leading trends, technologies and companies that could help you develop a profitable investment strategy in this hot constantly changing industry.

It is an excellent blend of technological descriptions and business insight with a touch of prognostication from industry leaders, thinkers and innovators. The book is divided into three main parts: 1) the main technologies feeding convergence, 2) company convergence, and 3) services convergence. A veteran technologist may want to skip the first part, but not knowing much about wireless or DSL I found it very informative and a good refresher on T-1. Each part ends with a bibliography containing references to books, web resources and articles, but the real payoff is the information gleaned from the author's extensive interviews.

I love the multipurpose feel to this book. It is labeled as the first of the "Portable Consultant" series and is worthy of that tag. This is not just a technical book and it is not just a business book, it is both, not an easy thing to do. Like a good consultant it is packed full of useful information and easy to understand explanations.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good writing and great concepts converge in this book, August 16, 2000

By 

G. Martin "GEM in NJ" (Hampton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Telecommunications Convergence: How to Profit from the Convergence of Technologies, Services, and Companies (Paperback)

Simple to understand, easy to read, always interesting, and most amazingly, often entertaining. This is high praise for a "technical book." It is actually not a technical book, but it is about technical subjects, several relatively complex market concepts, and the big trends in networking. All easy to follow and recall after reading. I like Mr. Shepard's organization and style. It seemed to me that I was often hearing him speak these thoughts, rather than just reading them. I highly recommend this book to Service Providers, Network Equipment manufacturers, and to the component companies that are designing the chips for future networks. This book will jump-start your understanding of how convergence is influencing system and service designs for our future networked world. Enjoy the book, I did.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book about the Telecommunications Industry, October 27, 2000

By 

Allison (HI, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Telecommunications Convergence: How to Profit from the Convergence of Technologies, Services, and Companies (Paperback)

This book is featured as a "portable consultant", which is quite true. The readers can get not only information, but also advice and opinion on telecommunications issues from the author. It is a helpful and practical book for reader to understand and to be aware of the development of telecommunications, particularly in the notion of business industry.

For people who are interested in telecommunications, it means they would like to learn more than telecom vocabularies. Grasping the meaning of all the common industry terms (mostly acronyms) is evidently important. Yet it is more important and useful if the reader knows the applications of those terms, what are the needs and expectations of the users and how to manipulate the technologies that are available in order to get the most out of it? This book is an excellent starting point to address all questions of the same kind. In addition, it can help you to vision a more organized picture of telecommunications. Convergence is the theme of the book. Every little piece of TECHNOLOGY, SERVICE and ORGANIZATION are in fact interrelated. This book is divided into three sections accordingly.

The technology section explains nearly every basic telecommunications terms and concepts that one needs to know in the industry. For example, it introduces ATM as a connection-oriented technology. Instead of giving lengthy description on what ATM is, it compares ATM with frame relay; it explains the QoS and CoS control in ATM (which is important because QoS and CoS allow the provider to provide "measurable performance" to its customers); it discusses why ATM should be considered in a network by laying out the advantages and drawbacks of ATM; and finally the condition of ATM market. Another example is on satellite transmission, more than merely focusing on the technology, the author brings in information on some of the satellite services companies. This helps the readers to develop a more comprehensive view of the technology.

The service and company sections involve a higher level of explanations on the changes of the scale and the scope of services that are provided and how does the new industry model emerge. For example, most of the telecommunications services can be identifies with basic and supplementary/enhanced services. Users expect to receive more services with higher quality over the same network infrastructure. At the same time, there is a trend that companies are altering their models and organizations. New management, new structure, new relationships and all different kind of shifting, merging and renovation are in process to achieve the same goal - more productive and more profitable. E-commerce is absolutely an evolutionary development of doing business with the integration of technology. What are the reactions of the big industry players? It becomes a task to define the role of each carrier and corporation. Examples on Cisco, AOL, AT&T and Quest are deliberated.

In short, this is a book that I would recommend to people who are interested in telecommunications. It will enhance your knowledge on telecommunications industry without intimidating what you have learnt. Edition of the book is frequently updated with the most current information.