Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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 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.

...for anyone involved in the telecommunications business, be the service providers, technology developers or the end customers. As Mr. Shepard says in the foreword, Telecommunications is the most dynamic, fast changing industry in history...

I had the chance of attending a session by Mr. Shepard on Telecommunications Convergence last year and, after I heard his presentation, I finally had a better understanding of the what, where and, most important, why the customers want to buy the services that our telecommunications technology make possible. Everything was so much clearer!

Now, his research and thoughts are published and anyone that has an interest in the telecom industry can go through the three sections of the books and get a nice primer on technology convergence (including a most useful Common Industry Acronyms list in the Appendix); Company convergence, providing a great insight on Corporate Evolution, e-Commerce and e-Business (now thet we hear those terms everyday!) and Mr. Shepard's company classifications/models.

All the topics covered in the book are presented in an easy to understand, often good-humored fashion, but it calls to the attention of the reader the importance and seriousness of Services Convergence: what are the customers looking for, and what will it take for the service provider to deliver the competitive advantage that will make the difference in the market. Because, quoting Mr. Shepard again, "the quickest way to become a leader is to find a parade and get in front of it".

Great reading material, strategies for success, useful convergence online resources are listed in the appendix. And I repeat, this book should be mandatory reading for the Service Providers that are fighting to be the leaders in this fast paced market.

Steve Shepard's diverse knowledge of the world of telecom is brought together in this book to help lead the way to the next generation of this industry. Cutting through today's marketing hype, and getting down to the no-nonsense reality of what to expect and be prepared for, is refreshing to read. This book is a "must read" for anyone who wants to stay on top and ahead of the telecommunications industry and market.

Shepard's primary goal is to help readers understand how the convergence of native telecommunication technologies and the companies that create them provides the fundamental underpinnings of customer service.

He addresses three major aspects of telecommunications convergence:

Technology Convergence - Current telecommunication technologies and how they are evolving and affecting our lives. The book provides excellent and brief descriptions of the myriad of today's telecommunication technologies; IP, Fiber Optics, ATM, SONET, Frame Relay etc., etc., etc...

Company Convergence - How Telecommunication technology is rewriting the business plans of the companies that manufacture telecommunication equipment, as well as those that provide and receive telecommunication services.

Services Convergence - The new technology and its rapid evolution requires changes in the way services are delivered and a rigorous anticipation of customer needs. Service providers must look beyond the needs of their customers to the needs of their customer's customer.

The book includes a comprehensive glossary of industry acronyms and an extensive bibliography of books, articles, and online resources.

This book provided a good overview of telecom technology, but you have to work though lots of poor editing. For example, it reads "DWDM (discussed earlier) is a...". Unfortunately, DWDM has not been discussed earlier (as confirmed by the index in the back) and is not explained after that. DWDM is a pretty important topic and I'm sure they did plan to have it explained in some detail. The editor just seems to have left it out. It also has typos like saying "Technology A is superior to tech B, so tech B has been much more widely accepted in the marketplace." Huh? You're left wondering if the mistake is at the start of the sentence or the end.

I know this sounds like 2 minor examples, but there a lots of them in here and it makes this reading tougher than it should be. When you are trying to learn new material, having your source reference contain small mistakes is pretty frustrating.

Great introduction to converging data and voice functionalities. Really helped me work out my voice over IP integrations with my existing telephone systems.

Nice coverage of topics- local loop, ISDN, T1 etc etc. As an earlier reader pointed out, there are some irritating typos, and some illustrations do not match up with the writing. But I enjoyed reading the book so much (great price, too) that I was willing to overlook these minor irritants.

I purchased this book for my college class. Although it introduced me a broad concept of convergence, its poor organization gave me headaches whenever I needed quick references on certain topics.

I believe anyone who sees its contents would have a hard time figuring out if there is "any" relationship between subtitles. Some subtitles had no reasons to be typed bold, while others should've been typed that way. Worse yet, the author summarized only certain issues, while he ignored many others with no clear explanations.

Nonetheless, if you can endure such a disorganization, this book will be a gentle introduction to the field. Especially, Company Convergence Resources at the end of this book were quite useful for me.