Telecommunications Essentials

Chapter 1. Understanding the Telecommunications Revolution

In recent years, the word telecommunications has been used so often, and applied in so many situations, that it has become part of our daily lexicon, yet its definition remains elusive. So, let's start with a definition. The word telecommunications has its roots in Greek: tele means “over a distance,” and communicara means “the ability to share.” Hence, telecommunications literally means “the sharing of information over a distance.” Telecommunications is more than a set of technologies, it's more than an enormous global industry (estimated to be US$2.5 trillion), it's more than twenty-first-century business and law that is being re-created to accommodate a virtual world, and it's more ...