Foundations of Business Telecommunications Management PDF
Preview Foundations of Business Telecommunications Management
FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT APPROACHES TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY S.rl• • Editor Thoma. F. Carb.ry, Strathclyde Business School University of Strathclyde Glasgow, Scotland Foundations of Business Information Systems Andrew Doswell Foundations of Business Telecommunications Management Kenneth C. Grover Humanizing Technology: Computers in Community Use and Adult Education Elisabeth Gerver A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher. FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT KENNETH C. GROVER Telecommunications Consultant PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Grover, Kenneth C. Foundations of business telecommunications management. (Approaches to information technology) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Business-Communication systems. 2. Telecommunication systems. 3. Telephone in business. I. Title. HF5541.T4G76 1986 384 86-5063 ISBN-13: 978-0-306-42249-2 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-2193-4 DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4613-2193-4 © 1986 Plenum Press, New York A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation 233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher To the memory of my son David FOREWORD lnfonnation technology is about more than computers. Thus, it was a recurring-and rather infuriating-aspect of the early discussions on infonnation technology that those who participated tended either to ignore or to severely understate the role in infonnation technology of telecommunications. This very fine book by Ken Grover goes a long way toward correcting that misconception. However important the computer and computer-based equipment might be, the role of telecommunications equip ment has also been and continues to be significant. Moreover, as the author brings out, it is going to be even more important. As this enthralling story unfolds the reader will find him or herself continually remarking that there cannot be more-but again and again, there is. Those who are already of the world of telecommunications will, on reading this work, be proud of their colleague. Those who are already of the world of computers will learn a great deal and, it is to be hoped, will in future be fairer toward telecommunications than they have been in the past. Those who are new to the world of information technology will sally forth better balanced than most. Thomas F. Carbery Strathclyde Business School University of Strathclyde Glasgow vii PREFACE For almost a century since the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell there was no real change in telecommunications as a means for two people to converse at a distance. Moreover, telephone users had very little choice in the installations they had or the services available, having virtually always to take what the telephone companies, usually exercising a monopoly, were prepared to provide, and to accept the operating standards they decided were appropriate. Businesses generally valued the telephone as a means of communication, but, with good surface mail and the telegraph for occasional special needs, were not critically dependent on the telephone. With the rapid and continuing advance in telecommunications technology over the last twenty years or so, there has come a dramatic growth in the dependence of industry and commerce on telecommunications. Reliance is now placed on telecommunications not only for the immediate conveyance of information by the spoken word, but also for the conveyance of data and other nonvoice intelligence. The operational and financial viability of industry and commerce now depend critically on telecommunications. It is not surprising that the monopoly exercised by the long established telecommunications companies for so many years has been challenged. In many countries telecommunications users are being given increasing freedom to decide for themselves what installations and services best meet their needs, and have increasing influence on operating standards. In some countries com panies are being allowed to develop networks and systems in competition with the existing ones. At the same time, manufacturers are entering the ix x Preface telecommunications and allied markets for the first time to compete in the supply of terminals and systems. Senior managers and members of boards of major telecommunications users, of competing network and service providers, and of telecommunications manufacturers, are now facing for the first time major investment decisions on which the future commercial viability of their businesses critically depend. This book seeks to inform them, going no further into the technical aspects than is essential, and to give them an insight into the complexities of the issues with which they must cope to reach sound decisions. AUTHOR'S NOTE The views expressed in this book are based on the author's experience over more than forty years in the British Post Office and later, British Telecom munications. They do not necessarily represent the views of those organi zations or of any other telecommunications company. The author remains very conscious, however, of the influence which the many colleagues with whom he was privileged to work have had in forming those views. xi CONTENTS PART I: THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION .................................... 3 Chapter 2: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ......................... 7 Chapter 3: TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION .................... 11 Chapter 4: THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THE USER AND THE SYSTEM ...................................... 15 Chapter 5: DATA COMMUNICATIONS ......................... 19 PART II: TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS Chapter 6: TELECOMMUNICATIONS TERMINALS .............. 25 Voice Terminals .......................................... 25 Message Terminals ....................................... 29 Data Terminals ........................................... 32 Other Terminals .......................................... 34 Terminals-Summary ...................................... 37 Chapter 7: LOCAL TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORKS ......... 39 Internal Networks ......................................... 39 Local Networks Transmission ............................... 41 External Local Networks ................................... 42 xiii
The list of books you might like
