"This
'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means
of communication.
The device is inherently of no value to us." --Western Union internal memo, 1876
"This
'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means
of communication.
"Telecommunications is often characterized by a dizzying array of acronyms and abbreviations that everyone is expected to know. The list of acronyms on the WorldCom site will help you understand some of the 'lingo' that is constantly being created."
"And if you're like us, you're tired of coping with this breeding ground of acronyms, jargon and technical tongue-twisters. Here's a solution. Impress your friends with the Telecom Lingo Guide. That's our at your fingertips dictionary of the complicated, the obscure and the freshly minted vocabulary words that are spelling out the winners and losers in telecommunications."
Acronyms and abbreviations from Telecom Digest, the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup.
Acronyms published in Billing World magazine article "Confusion in the Resale Arena" by James Wilburn, February 1997.
"The
telephone is a good way to talk to people without having to offer them
a drink." -- Fran Lebowitz, "Interview"
"Our mission is to give Web readers an easy, enjoyable briefing on the latest moves in the complex world of telecom and media. We concentrate on the key companies and their relationships within the industry worldwide. Every morning we'll tell you who's buying or venturing with whom, who's gaining market share and who's developing a hot new technology. "
"Your online source for timely, comprehensive technology information about today's telecommunications market"
"... a must-read magazine that covers all major new services areas--DATA, MULTIMEDIA, WIRELESS, BROADBAND, and advanced VOICE services"
"Washington Telecom Newswire is a service offering same day, accurate, spot news coverage of events primarily in Washington, D.C., affecting the telecommunications industry. Think of us as the Associated Press of telephony. Coverage includes significant legislation on Capitol Hill, activities at the Federal Communications Commission and issues before the federal courts."
"Daily news for the telecoms industry"
CED Magazine (Communications Engineering and Design)
"Welcome to the premier magazine of broadband communications, enjoyed and studied monthly by 22,500 high-tech subscribers. In both our print and digital versions you'll find insights into new technology, new products and new operating practices that help make your job easier."
"The Internet journal of the long distance industry"
Internet Week (formerly Communications Week Interactive)
"The Home Page for the Network Generation"
"For the converging worlds of communications and information technology"
"Broadcom is an innovative and dynamic leader of research in advanced telecommunications technologies. Our goal is to help identify and fulfill future needs in the telecommunications market." (Their journal)
"Utility
is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is
when you have three
"The ITU, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland is an international organization within which governments and the private sector coordinate global telecom networks and services. ITU activities include the coordination, development, regulation and standardization of telecommunications and organization of regional and telecom world events."
This group maintains the master country code listing.
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
The Office of Telecommunications (UK)
"OFTEL is the 'watchdog', or regulator, for the UK telecoms industry. Our aim is for customers to get the best possible deal in terms of quality, choice and value for money. OFTEL is a non-ministerial government department, independent of ministerial control, and is headed by the Director General of Telecommunications, who is appointed by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission..."
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
"The CRTC's role is to supervise and regulate Canada's broadcasting and telecommunications systems, balancing the interests of consumers, the creative community and distribution industries in implementing the public policy objectives established by Parliament"
Ministry of postal services, telecommunications, and space (France)
"I*M-EUROPE acts as a medium for supporting the actions of DGXIII of the European Commission in stimulating the European electronic information services market and multimedia content industries."
Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (Japan)
Institut De l'Audiovisuel et des Télécommunications en Europe
"Having become one of the leading skills centres in Europe, specializing in analysis of the telecommunications, audiovisual and information-processing industries, IDATE is today a partner to more than a hundred firms and numerous public organizations and government administrations."
"We are an independent [U.S.] government agency charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable."
"Bellcore creates innovative business solutions that make information technology work for telecommunications carriers, businesses and governments around the world. Our technical knowledge of network architecture, operations, reliability and security is unparalleled. Our teams of engineers, computer scientists, economists, training specialists, behavioral scientists, and materials scientists are committed to the success of our clients, enabling them to meet and surpass their customers' expectations. " Note: They no longer maintain the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).
North American Numbering Plan (NANP)
"This site provides information about the North American Numbering
Plan (NANP) and its administration. The NANP is
the numbering plan for the Public Switched Telephone Network
in the United States and its territories, Canada,
Bermuda, and many Caribbean nations...Lockheed Martin IMS, the
NANP administrator (NANPA), sponsors this page"
Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions
"The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions [ATIS] brings together more than 2,000 subject matter experts from the telecommunications industry in open, consensus-based committees to resolve standards and operations issues. " (North America and Caribbean)
| 1996 | 1995 | COMPANY | SCORE | MERGE NOTES |
| 1 | 1. | SBC Communications | 6.86 | (merging with Ameritech?) |
| 2 | 3. | BellSouth | 6.35 | |
| 3 | 8. | Sprint | 6.29 | |
| 4 | 4. | Ameritech | 6.22 | (merging with SBC?) |
| 5 | 6. | MCI Communications | 6.17 | |
| 6 | 5. | Bell Atlantic | 6.09 | (merging with GTE?) |
| 7 | 7. | GTE | 5.64 | (merging with Bell Atlantic?) |
| 8 | 2. | AT&T | 5.61 | |
| 9 | 9. | US West | 5.31 | |
| 10 | 10. | Nynex | 4.88 | (now part of Bell Atlantic) |
"When
Alexander Graham Bell died in 1922, the telephone people interrupted service
for one minute in his honor.
"The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is the first major overhaul of telecommunications law in almost 62 years. The goal of this new law is to let anyone enter any communications business -- to let any communications business compete in any market against any other."
Data Topics
Other Topics ATMATM (Cell Relay FAQ)
"The purpose of this group is to provide a forum for the submission of articles and inquiries dealing with networks using Cell Relay as a transport; including local, metropolitan, and wide area networks. The name cell-relay was chosen as a compromise over objections to the name "ATM" during the creation of this group. The acronym ATM in the context of this group stands for Asynchronous Transfer Mode, not Automatic Teller Machines or Adobe Type Manager. The term "cell" in cell-relay is taken to mean a small, fixed sized, information bearing unit that provides the foundation for transport and multiplexing of user traffic. This topic area is not related to cellular phones or intra-cellular organisms." (See also References For The ATM)
An introduction to data communications protocols and ATM by Lauren May.
A paper describing the characteristics of ATM, the application of ATM to support networked multimedia and bandwidth-intensive applications at the desktop, and describes the hardware and software elements that provide for practical implementation.
Formed through the cooperative agreement of vendors interested in testing ATM products, located at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab (IOL)
International non-profit organization with the objective of accelerating the adoption of ATM products and services. Resource on ATM developments, white papers and initiatives.
Tutorial for people new to ATM technology, from Net Factory. Providing a quick overview of what ATM is and how it works.
A collection of white papers on ATM from 3Com. Covers areas of ATM and Gigabit Ethernet, integration issues, LAN emulation, ATM networking, optimizing ATM backbone networks and ATM solutions.
Presenting an overview of high speed networks and their applications, the details of the ATM protocols and formats, the ATM-adaptation layers and the manner in which ATM cells are actually packaged for transmission across the user-network interface.
ATM vs. Ethernet Performance Benchmark
Results of benchmark testing of 25 Mbps and 155 Mbps ATM vs. 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps Ethernet from LANQuest Labs.
From ADC Kentrox, a paper discussing TDM-based Inverse Multiplexing (IM), Load Sharing, and ATM-based Inverse Multiplexing (IMA).
Integrating ATM Across the Enterprise Data Network
A 3Com paper discussing the migration issues to ATM. It reviews ATM concepts, LAN Emulation and presents deployment scenarios.
Introduction to ATM Traffic Management
A technology paper from Network Equipment Technologies discussing service categories, quality of service parameters, traffic contract, switch architecture, and traffic management functions.
Inverse
Multiplexing over ATM (IMA)
A paper by Randy Brumfield from 3Com outlining
the benefits of ATM in the WAN, and reviews the cost barriers prior to
the implementation of IMA. It then describes how IMA brings new cost effectiveness
and functionality to ATM deployment across the WAN.
Multi-protocol
over ATM
From the ATM Forum, the Multi-Protocol Over ATM
(MPOA) specification is the industry's first standards based solution that
allows routed networks to take advantage of the benefits of the ATM network
(i.e. lower latency, performance, scalability).
Operating LANs in an ATM Environment
From HP, covering two of the key
technologies for integrating local area network data into ATM networks.
PNNI
Control Point
An IBM paper discussing the role of PNNI in an
ATM network. Topics include migration from OSPF to PNNI, PNNI tutorial,
accessing and servicing the PNNI control point, network management and
interoperability.
The
Performance of TCP Over ATM ABR and UBR Services
From Xiangrong CAI, a survey paper on the performance of TCP over ATM ABR and UBR services.
The Technology of Inverse Multiplexing
An overview of switched digital services and circuit-based
inverse multiplexing by Jay Duncanson, Ascend Communications.
Understanding
ATM and Network Layer Switching: Part I
An informative article on ATM and Layer 3 switching
from Rawn Shah. Discusses the issues behind ATM and TCP/IP integration.
Understanding
ATM and Network Layer Switching: Part II
Part 2 of Rawn Shah's article on ATM and switching.
100Base-T and 100VG-AnyLAN Comparison
A paper from Compaq discussing the 100Base-T and 100VG-AnyLAN technologies.
An Introduction to Fast Ethernet
Tutorial from Asante Technologies. Provides a
general overview of 100Base-T Fast Ethernet, a technical view, sample configurations
and migration strategies.
FDDI
Basic information on FDDI from the FDDI Consortium.
Frame Relay: Networks for Tomorrow and Today. (See also comp.dcom.frame-relay)
A good start.
Frame Relay (from Motorola)
"This page is mostly a collection of pointers to Frame Relay related
information on the WEB ...This page is sponsored by Motorola ISG as a service
to the Frame Relay industry."
From the Frame Relay Forum, on Frame Relay applications in the various industries.
An overview on using Frame Relay as a transmission protocol for SNA data traffic, from the Frame Relay Forum.
Frame Relay Circuit Management
From ADC Kentrox, a discussion on monitoring circuit performance.
Association of corporate members comprised of vendors, carriers, users and consultants committed to the implementation of Frame Relay.
A collection of tutorials on frame relay from Alliance Datacom.
Voice over Frame Relay Integration
A paper on integration voice over Frame Relay circuits from Micom. Paper helps you understand the basics of frame relay, the technologies to look for when deploying voice over frame relay, and examples of wide area networking costs.
Voice over Frame Relay Tutorial
From IEEE, a tutorial on VoFR.
A forum dedicated to promoting industry cooperation in the development of Gigabit Ethernet.
Frequently asked questions about the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance, standards, general market/product, and related technologies and standards.
Gigabit Ethernet over Category 5: Part I
A whitepaper on proposed signaling schemes from Scope Communications.
Gigabit Ethernet over Category 5: Part II
A whitepaper on channel environment and SNR margin.
A paper by the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance providing an overview of the technical foundations of Gigabit Ethernet over four pair UTP.
From Gigabit Ethernet Alliance, an overview of Gigabit Ethernet, including Ethernet's current position in the industry, and applications driving the need for more bandwidth.
Gigabit Ethernet vs. ATM Networks
A whitepaper from Packet Engines contrasting Gigabit Ethernet with ATM. According to the paper, the expectations and promises of ATM are being fulfilled by Gigabit Ethernet switching and wire-speed routing.
Introduction to Gigabit Ethernet
An technology brief from Cisco Systems. discussing the architecture of Gigabit Ethernet, standards, comparison of Gigabit and ATM, topologies and migration strategies.
From Data Communications, on tweaking Intel servers for Gigabit Ethernet.
SONET
Packet
over Sonet
From Data Communications, an informative article on running IP directly over SONET.
An Internet draft from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
A tutorial on the SONET standard from the International Engineering Consortium. It covers frame format structure, pointers, overheads, multiplexing, network elements, network configurations and benefits.
All You Wanted to Know About T1 But Were Afraid to Ask
A good overview on T1 - background, channel banks and format, signal shapes and code, cabling, connectors and applications from Bob Wachtel.
Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing Tutorial
An in-depth tutorial from Lucent on DWDM and how it is enabling service providers answer the need for increasing bandwidth.
High Speed Networking Technologies
A business guide from Digital Equipment examining three popular high speed network technologies - Fast Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM).
ISDN (Dan Kegel's ISDN Page)
"I originally started the page to share what I'd found on the Web re ISDN with my coworkers, but it has become quite popular. Its top level menu was accessed 20,000 times in February, and was accessed by 24,000 unique hosts from its creation thru Feb '95. Since some hosts may be firewalls or multiuser systems, the true size of the readership is probably closer to 30,000."
... Start with What is ISDN, anyway?. (See also comp.dcom.isdn FAQ and comp.dcom.isdn)
PCS (PCS Frequently Asked Questions)
TMN (TMN Roadmap)
"This page is intended to be a gateway to standards information on Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) for application developers, standards people, and others who have an interest in the TMN. The information contained in these pages is organized in a number of different ways, based on the assumed needs of potential users."
Atlanta
makes it against the law to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street
lamp.
Telecom Digest's Frequently Asked Questions