Rating: 
Summary: A good basic introduction to telecom tech
Review: I read this book while I was a legal intern at the FCC to try to learn the tech side of the telecom world. I knew policy, but I had no idea how the telephone network actually worked. This book gives a great basic grounding in the technology of telecommunications-switches, routers, time division multiplexing, and everything else.
Luckily, basic is exactly what I needed. The "tell it to me like I'm a two-year-old" approach might be frustrating for some advanced readers. I found myself skipping some of the sections on the Internet because it was too elementary for me.
Also, if you're going to read it, make sure you get the latest edition of this book. Technologies change fast, and some of the sections are bound to become out-of-date very quickly.
Once you have the tech side down, you can pick up the regulatory policy side by reading The Telecommunications Regulation Handbook available for free from the World Bank. It's just as basic as Dodd's book, but is better read if you know how the technology works. Get these two under your belt, and you'll be ready to work at your local friendly telecom regulatory agency.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Overview Of Telecom Technology
Review: The Essential Guide to Telecommunications is probably one of the most well written and useful telecom books you will find.. Annabel Z. Dodd does a great job in capturing a snapshot of the current telecom industry, in all of its different flavors. You will find technical overviews of numerous telecom technologies and transport methods. These include business telephone systems, circuit switching, local and long distance networks, cable, wireless, cellular and PCS, paging, Voice Over IP, satellites, broadband services, DSL, T-1's, ISDN, ATM, and much, much more. Dodd's writing is understandable and enjoyable to read. Even those with little or no technical knowledge should be able to understand the text. The author seems to assume that the reader has only a minimal amount of technical knowledge, but does know something about the telecom industry in general. This is the perfect book for telecom salespeople who want to learn more about the products and services they are selling, or for those who just want to keep up-to-date on the latest in telecom technology. This book not only gives you explanations of how various telecom technologies work, but compares them side-by-side from both technical and practical (business) points of view. Where and when does using a wireless network make sense? What type of fiber offers the most capacity? How many T-1's are in a T-3? You will find the answer to all of these questions and more in The Essential Guide to Telecommunications. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Good Intro/Overview of the Telecom world
Review: I just finished reading this book and overall found it to be very informative. It covers a general overview of everything from the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to telecommunications around the world. Landline, wireless, and internet are all covered along with the technologies that make them work. With that being said, this book will NOT make you an expert in telephony or any specific area of telecommunications. It is however, a great start. The one problem I had with the book was numerous grammatical errors. I found that in some cases I had to mentally disassemble and rebuild a sentence to understand what was trying to be said. I would (and have) recommend this book to a coworker and/or friend getting started with telecommunications.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Overview of a Broad Range of Topics; limited depth
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Number one Telecom Intro Book
Review: Magnificent! Perfect example of a Technology book everyone can relate too. After finishing this one, I was desperately looking for any other technology book written by this author, couldn't find any. Looking forward to find more books from this Author..
Rating:
Summary: My first book on this subject: Very good
Review: I bought this book with a little bit of apprehension. As I don't know much about telecommunications I thought it was going to be too hard a reading. It came out pretty good. I can say that after reading it I got a good broad picture of most of the subjects treated.
Maybe the only inconvenience is that on its own it isn't enough to give a full understanding of the whole thing. I am already thinking of buying another book to further my knowledge. It also starts stright ahead with terms and names that will be clarified only later on in the book. Still I think it is a wonderfull book for the first step.
Rating: 
Summary: Yuck!
Review: Annabel Z. Dodd has a bad case of professoritis. That is, she knows a lot about her subject, but is completely unable to translate that knowledge into a logical and lucid explanation of the topic. The chapters are logically organized, but the subchapters and paragraphs appear to have been randomized. Often important information is placed well after the confusing details, so as to require a second reading for comprehension. A favorite trick of the author's is to tell you the history of something, before defining what it is. The copious charts often have no relationship to the text, or are so simplistic as to be irrelevant to understanding. Often the text bogs down in the minutia of protocols and definitions, and no clarifying examples of real-world uses are given. Finally, the editor (if there was one) did only the most cursory job of correcting the spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors in the text. I did learn something from this book, but sure had to work at deciphering the information out of triple-encrypted Dodd-speak to do so.
Rating:
Summary: Telecommunications Overview
Review: This is an excellent quick reference telecommunication book. It covers different voice and data topics with applications in the real world. The author is up to date with the most recent changes in telecommunications field (divestitures, mergers, etc.) It needs more detail on VoIP and there is no information about bluetooth wireless technology, which author should consider for the future editions. I would recommend this book as a quick reference material.
Rating:
Summary: What a waste of trees....
Review: Don't waste your time on this.
Rating:
Summary: Worthless garbage
Review: This book is obviously written by a person who knows the buzzwords, but fails to understand the technology. It is perhaps the most inaccurate book on technology available. Throughout the book there is mistruth and a glowing misconception of how technology works, particularly related to data network concepts. For example, Annabel claims the following four capabilites of network routers: 1) Sequencing
2) Path Optimization
3) Flow Control
4) Receipt Acknowledgement Lets see... 1) wrong, 2) sorta, 3) wrong and 4) wrong. This is just one of many examples throughout the book where the fundamentals are completely trampled on. Rather than buy this book, send the money directly to the author and ask her to read a few good books about the topics she tries to cover rather than contributing a truly awful book in this category.
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