Newton's Telecom Dictionary: The Official Dictionary of Telecommunications Networking and Internet

Telecommunications--broadly defined by Newton's Telecom Dictionary to include voice and data communications, including the Internet--is the defining technology of our age. As such, thousands of terms have entered the lexicon to describe tools and techniques used to move information from one geographic location to another. Still more terms have been coined for the business of buying and selling telecom services. While no dictionary of such a large and fluid collection of jargon could ever approach completeness, this book makes a decent stab at it. In any case, it's an informative and entertaining resource for reading and reference. Based on the theory that merely expanding an unfamiliar acronym can help you understand it, this book will teach readers a great deal.

Newton's Telecom Dictionary contains thousands of terms and phrases, each with a capsule definition. The terms include the names of technical specifications (such as "FRF11" and "Q.931"), technical jargon ("start bit" and "Type 1 CLEC"), equipment ("smart card"), and organizations ("Bellcore"). The dictionary has all this, plus more than a few entries that raise questions. For instance, did the term "Code Blue"--a technical feature of hospital phones that lets patients signal their distress to distant nurses by knocking phone receivers from their cradles--really derive from the fact that people turn blue when unable to breathe, as the book suggests? Whether it's really true or not, anecdotes like this drive the definition home and make for fun reading. --David Wall

Topics covered: The language of voice and data communications, including the public switched-telephone network and the Internet. Definitions include the relationships among standards documents, as well as technologies, products, tools, protocols, companies, people, and other aspects of telecommunications.