Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Foundation to Wireless Systems!
Review: This book is a must buy for newcomers to the wireless industry or for those who just want to know how wireless systems work. I gave this a 4 instead of a 5 because I was expecting a little more digital wireless information. This book gives an excellent explanation of analog cellular, the foundation of wireless as we know it today. There is a section later in the book that goes over digital wireless, (GSM, CDMA, TDMA). I think differences between analog and digital protocols should be discussed throughout the book, not just one section at the end. The author does an excellent job of taking a very complex system and filtering out the technical jargon to give the readers a book that has a balance of technical information that is easy to read and easy to understand. This is a great book for your money, and it is definitely worth your time to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Foundation to Wireless Systems!
Review: This book is a must read for newcomers to wireless or people who want to know how wireless really works. The only reason this review is a 4 not a 5 is I am a wireless engineer and I was interested in learning more about digital wireless. This book has a very good explanation of analog cellular, which laid the foundation for wireless as we know it today. I feel that there is not enough correlation between analog and digital, (GSM, CDMA, TDMA), systems and protocols. The book has a section late in the book giving an overview of various digital technologies. I think the differences of analog and digital protocols is needed from the beginning through the end of the book. The author does an great job explaining some very technical topics in an easy to read, easy to understand way. Definitely worth your time. This is a good buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, an overview with depth
Review: This book is exactaly what it's title says. This is THE introduction that will get you up to speed in the wireless world. The chapeters build on each other and makes it easy to understand for the non-telcom engineer, with out dumbing anything down. If I could give more than 5 stars I would, Wireless Crash Course gets the highest recomendation I can give. -- and after three years in the industry it holds it's own, what more can I say.
Rating:
Summary: Good and simple start
Review: This book is marvelous for the untechnical reader. I have 23 years in the IT and it was easy to read. To be certain, you must follow it up with more practical books (ex. Rhoton or Jimenez) for business implementation. Or even detail books (Rappaport) for technology. Other reviewers wrote that this book omits important parts. Every book will. You can not cover all of wireless in one book. This book is simple for end user.
Rating:
Summary: Good and simple start
Review: This book is marvelous for the untechnical reader. I have 23 years in the IT and it was easy to read. To be certain, you must follow it up with more practical books (ex. Rhoton or Jimenez) for business implementation. Or even detail books (Rappaport) for technology. Other reviewers wrote that this book omits important parts. Every book will. You can not cover all of wireless in one book. This book is simple for end user.
Rating:
Summary: Just what I needed to jump start in the Wireless world!
Review: This book was just what I needed! After changing jobs and suddenly seeing myself in the Wireless/Telecom market, I needed some background information to quickly jump-start in my new job - and that is exactly what I have found in this book! Basic and "second tier" concepts involving the elements of wireless systems are presented, altogether with a very comprehensive analysis of BTS and tower infrastructure I have not seen in any similar book. The way Mr. Bedell connects all the chapters and uses historical and factual data is very interesting as well, and the 400 pages can be read in a weekend with no major problems. Can't wait to get the "Telecom Management" from Crash Courses...
Rating: 
Summary: Crashed Course
Review: This is a very disappointing book. Technical stuff needn't be turgid or boring although I suspect this is less the author's fault than the publisher's, the latter perhaps worriedly taking the view that any hint of personality, lightness, humour or the like equates with lack of gravitas and must be ruthlessly excised and a few diddy questions stuck at the end of chapters for the book to be taken seriously; absolute rubbish of course.In fact Bedell often makes good use of analogies and models to explain particular concepts and implementations (for instance on CDMA on p259) and even makes the occasional jokey aside. The book would have been greatly improved by more of this. There are, however, too many factual and other errors as in the following examples. In 22.5.7 Bedell says, "There is currently a newer version of CDMA under development. Known as wideband CDMA (W-CDMA), sometimes known as 'CDMA 2000'". Really? Well, that solves at a stroke the problems of the two leading South Korean operators wondering which route to emphasise. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), GSM operators looking to upgrade, and others, may be surprised as well. Page 268 has, "... any SIM card works with any GSM handset ... [then] the owner must enter their four-digit PIN number. The SIM card cannot be activated without this PIN number ..." PIN stands for "Personal Identification Number" so it's just "PIN", incidentally, not "PIN number" but, more importantly, the statement is wrong as anyone who happily swaps SIMs between GSM handsets and hasn't enabled an optional PIN will confirm. 24.10.2.4 has "Bluetooth['s range is] much lower than the 3.5 mi of 802.11b." Well, yes. And so actually is the ordinary open-air range of 802.11b itself, at some three hundred feet or around only 1.5% of the distance claimed. Page 234 offers, "With the world shrinking at the rate it is in lieu of the globalization of the world economy ...."; "in lieu of" means "in place of" - presumably Bedell actually means "because of". And later in the paragraph he uses half a dozen words when a couple would suffice, one of many instances where the book would have benefited greatly by better editing and a reduction of maybe 15% to 20% overall. "ie" is not a synonym for "eg". The former stands for "id est" and means "that is", the latter for "exempli gratia" and means "for example". Eg, from page 364, "...locations will range from large enterprises (i.e. office buildings, hospitals, campuses)..", ie apparently will not include the likes of industrial complexes, airports or anything other than those three groups cited. So is this just being picky over things that ultimately don't matter? No, because factual errors (although, as every writer knows, they creep in) have no place in such a text book and this is sloppy editing. And the problem with grammatical or stylistic errors is that, firstly, they obfuscate rather than clarify meaning and so risk confusing the reader and, secondly, their presence raises the suspicion that if the writer or editor has been cavalier with language how cavalier has been the treatment of information which must be taken on trust. It matters greatly in programming whether a coder uses "OR" or "AND" and it's as important that a writer uses writing tools correctly to convey meaning accurately. More generally, the text is far too US-centric for something offering a fast-track route to grasping the essentials of a particular technology area. South Korea in particular and Asia in general is well ahead of the rest of the planet in wireless yet there's no mention of the exciting and innovative developments in those areas. Page 205, for instance, makes some bizarre claims about GPS yet location based systems (LBS) are big in South Korea and Japan and have been for some time. In 2001 the gap between Europe and the US in wireless was huge (although it's certainly narrowing) yet the technology used by 75% of the world, GSM, is barely considered. Who, some earnest US factoid collectors perhaps excepted, gives a toss about the dreary recitations of US cellular regulations or the arcane minutae distinguishing PCS and cellular? Far better to have skated briskly over all that and used the space to look in more detail at GSM, at CDMA-IS95 and the future developments of each, at the whole WiFi and WiMAN developments which, granted, were nascent in 2001 but which could still have been covered. The book has no glossary and the indexing is poor. Initialisms are fine to use but a reader needs easily to be able to recheck what, for instance, ESN, GSM, CTIA, AMPS, EIR, HLR and so on and so on stand for when he meets them later. This is entirely the publisher's fault, of course, but such a slapdash contempt for the reader simply isn't acceptable, particularly in a book for relative beginners. I certainly learned a fair bit I didn't earlier know and to that extent the book was useful. And an updated version would be welcome, particularly if it bravely struck out into the rest of the world where so much more is now happening, lightened up greatly the writing style and were properly edited. But until then, no, sadly it's a crashed course.
Rating:
Summary: Wireless Crash Course
Review: Wireless Crash Course is the book for those interested in learning about wireless communications without having to carry a wireless dictionary with you as you read. The author has taken what could be a very technically laden book, and broken it down to very comprehendible components. It is laid out logically to step the non-wireless engineer through all facets of wireless communications. A great book for engineers interested in learning about the wireless industry.
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