Rating: 
Summary: Grade A Content, C for Delivery
Review: I'm new to telecom and bought this book to get up to speed. I must say first and foremost that I am getting up to speed.But right after that I have to say that I can't read more than 10 pages in a row without finding a glaring error. For example, the term "jitter" is defined twice in two pages. Why? Plenty of typos, some of the illustrations look like the postscript monster ate them, and the 1,000 pages could easily be condensed to 500-600 by getting rid of redundancy. For example, the difference between analog amplifiers and digital repeaters is defined around 5 times in the first 300 pages (with more or less the same illustration at least two of those times). So, yeah, I get the concept now and couldn't forget it if I wanted to, but I didn't need to be told so many times. All that said, if I would recommend this book to anyone new to telecom, but advise them to be gentle critics or keep their red pens handy.
Rating:
Summary: Grade A Content, C for Delivery
Review: I'm new to telecom and bought this book to get up to speed. I must say first and foremost that I am getting up to speed. But right after that I have to say that I can't read more than 10 pages in a row without finding a glaring error. For example, the term "jitter" is defined twice in two pages. Why? Plenty of typos, some of the illustrations look like the postscript monster ate them, and the 1,000 pages could easily be condensed to 500-600 by getting rid of redundancy. For example, the difference between analog amplifiers and digital repeaters is defined around 5 times in the first 300 pages (with more or less the same illustration at least two of those times). So, yeah, I get the concept now and couldn't forget it if I wanted to, but I didn't need to be told so many times. All that said, if I would recommend this book to anyone new to telecom, but advise them to be gentle critics or keep their red pens handy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Refresher
Review: I've been in telecommunications for over 20 years, working on various products, but felt I needed to review the basics. I thought this book gave an excellent refresher on about every aspect of voice and data communications, although I thought it spent too much time on some small things, such as error correction, and not enough on new technologies, like DSL. I would recommend using this book as an overview, then move on to books that address specific topics that you are interested in. I think it provides an excellent foundation.
Rating: 
Summary: FINALLY A BOOK ON THE SUBJECT THAT ANYONE CAN UNDERSTAND
Review: Love this book. The author's style is clearly easy to understand and also makes the book interesting to read. Not to mention the great graphics - quality and the number of supporting graphics that most other books are lacking. Great to have found a book that also includes the objectives and quizzes for each chapter. Good job Bates!
Rating: 
Summary: Worst College Book of all time
Review: Ok well it may not be the worst book that I have used for college but it is on my top 5 list. I hate this book!!! The chapters are long. It uses to many acronyms. I hate having to go to a previous chapter just to find out what IEC stands for. But the worst thing of all is the chapter questions. You really have to search for the answer. The questions do not go in order with the chapter making it a very time consuming task to answer the questions (especially when you have 10 other chapters to complete in one day). Come on make it easier on us college students, we have enough to do already. I guess this book could be alot worse but it also could be alot better. Its very hard to stay awake when reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Worst College Book of all time
Review: Ok well it may not be the worst book that I have used for college but it is on my top 5 list. I hate this book!!! The chapters are long. It uses to many acronyms. I hate having to go to a previous chapter just to find out what IEC stands for. But the worst thing of all is the chapter questions. You really have to search for the answer. The questions do not go in order with the chapter making it a very time consuming task to answer the questions (especially when you have 10 other chapters to complete in one day). Come on make it easier on us college students, we have enough to do already. I guess this book could be alot worse but it also could be alot better. Its very hard to stay awake when reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Out of date
Review: Since this is the Third Edition and the copyright is 2000, I expected this book to be more up-to-date. It barely touches on any LAN speed faster than 100M. I thought it interesting that the author considers Frame Relay to be "new and is just now becoming an acceptable means of transporting information". As far as I know, Frame Relay has been around for several years and the use is far spread. It also talks about Cascade Communications, which changed to Ascend Communication in 1997, which in turn was acquired by Lucent in 1999. It also still references US West instead of Qwest. The authors tend to repeat information in the voice section. I would like to have seen more detail on the Data side of communications. The book is a good basic starting point for learning Voice and Data Communications, but leaves too much out to be a good reference book.
Rating: 
Summary: Newly revised and expanded!!
Review: Telecommunications is one of the world's fastest-growing industries, absorbing many inexperienced, non-technical personnel into a highly technical field. That's why industry veterans Regis J. Bates and Donald Gregory offer this revised edition of the most comprehensive, up-to-date, jargon-free guide available, THE VOICE AND DATA COMMUNICATIONS HANDBOOK, Signature Edition. Beginning with voice communications, the book guides readers through the basics of: - Voice characteristics and processing
- Traffic engineering
- Telephone equipment and networks
- Service carriers
- Analog vs. digital transmission
- Lines vs. trunks Data communications topics include:
- The T1 and T carrier system and ISDN
- The OSI model
- Packet switching technologies
- Local Area networks, Ethernet, and Token Ring LANs
- Broadband vs. Baseband
- Fiber-Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)
- Switched Multi-megabit Data Services (SMDS)
- Cellular and PCS
- Radio, Light, and Cabling Systems Readers will also find revised sections on switched and virtual LANs, Gigabit Ethernet, networked videoconferencing, and the latest on ATM, SONET, and DSL. Also included is a summary of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, plus new sections on the Internet, Intranets and Extranets, computer-telephony integration, and much more. Regis J. Bates has more than 30 years of experience in telecommunications and management information systems. Bates, president of TC International Consulting, is widely published in trade magazines and journals, and is the author of five other books.
Rating:
Summary: Good General Information
Review: The information was good, but not technical. The section about PBXs discussed cost more then how they work. As a managerial tool, its not bad, but as an engineer, I found it lacking in technical information that I like to have. If you're looking for diagrams and formulas, look for something else.
Rating:
Summary: DSL?
Review: This book has alot of excellent information, However...., it claims in the description to cover DSL. It appears once in the book in one sentence..... This refers to the signature edition
| 
