Rating: 
Summary: Unreliable, inaccurate
Review: The business and regulatory definitions in the book are uniformly terrible. For instance, "a LATA is, simply put, an areacode". That's just not true. At one time, some LATAs coincided with areacodes but many didn't and almost none do now. "A common carrier is defined as a carrier whose prices are regulated". But lots of common carriers are no longer price regulated, and common carriage is a legal term that has nothing to do with prices. Virtual collocation is described as "where carrier B pays carrier A lots of money for maintaining equipment". Apart from being silly, that doesn't begin to clarify how virtual collocators actually interconnect, which is what someone who looks up that definition wants to know. The Common Carrier Line charge is defined as "the access charge long-distance carriers pay to local carriers when calls are handed off and its purpose is to replace subsidies". Well, it is an access charge, but the CCLC is only one of a number of access charge elements, and it has a very particular purpose - the recovery to the local carrier of the cost of the local loop that the long distance carrier is sending its traffic over. The author substitutes pejorativeness for authorativeness. If you want a book that explains telecom clearly and accurately, look for the Telecom Factbook, another McGraw Hill product and so far superior to this junk.
Rating: 
Summary: New Edition Comes with a CDROM!
Review: The new second edition of this book comes equipped with a CDROM. It contains the entire dictionary in adobe format, and over 1,000 additional pages from other McGraw-Hill books. The additional pages are accesed via clickable links that are labeled "further reading" near each definition that has corresponding material. Clicking the link dispays the book cover and the additional pages taken from the book. This is the most comprehensive in breadth and depth of any telecom reference.....ever. So, while you are looking up an entry, you can click a link to get additional information while previewing a more detailed book at the same time. I beleive that this is what all reference books were meant to be.Jade Clayton
Rating:
Summary: Utterly Useless because of Factual and Editorial Errors
Review: This book attempts to define many of the terms/acronyms, etc you encounter in daily life working in the internet and telcom world. Unfortunatly, there are so many errors in this book that it makes it useless at best, and mideducational at worst. In 10 minutes of flipping through pages, I counted atleast a dozen errors, and that was enough to put any information presented in this volume into a questionable state. Examples, according to the book: A T1 is also known as a DS0 An OC3 has 255 Megabits of bandwidth, and an OC192 is 3 OCs. I was hoping for a handy desktop reference and got oh so much less.
Rating: 
Summary: Missing something
Review: This book do have a look of terms and reference but disappointingly, I cannot find some popular terms such as LMDS, MMDS and DTM. I suggest that everyone should have a look first before you buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Missing something
Review: This book do have a look of terms and reference but disappointingly, I cannot find some popular terms such as LMDS, MMDS and DTM. If a telecom dictionary doesn't have coverage on broadband transmission, it cannot regard as a dictionary. I suggest that everyone should have a look first before you buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: This dictionary has helped me understand the realm of telecommuncations much better, I have recently taken on additional responsibilities at my job (isn't everyone?) regarding our phone system, and this dictionary has been a huge help! The diagrams are exactly what I needed. Phone calls and visitors from telephone companies are referred to me now, and with this book I have been able to have a reference of what different services and equipment are composed of without having to be constantly ask questions and take notes. It has become the most useful book in my office.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Helpful
Review: This is a great book for someone is starting in the telecom field! It explains all the little acronyms that I hear around the office and I have a better understanding on how the telecom industry works!
Rating:
Summary: Very Helpful
Review: This is a huge amount of extrememly helpful information. The CDROM is a convenient library of network and telecom info, anyone in majoring in IT or IS needs to have a copy of it on their PC. I recommend it strongly.
Rating:
Summary: Very Helpful
Review: This is a huge amount of extrememly helpful information. The CDROM is a convenient library of network and telecom info, anyone in majoring in IT or IS needs to have a copy of it on their PC. I recommend it strongly.
Rating:
Summary: Great Resource Manual
Review: This is a one stop shop for knowledge. When I don't understand something, this is the first place I go to get help. It is very easy to understand and is user friendly. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone that is in the telecom/networking field. I can't say enough about this book and I am looking forward to the next edition.
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