Introduction

Welcome to Telecom For Dummies, a book for people who work in telecom (99 percent of whom come into the industry through no fault of their own). You’re probably a very smart person, and so your boss decided to give you the responsibility of handling that expensive communication network that keeps the company in business. Don’t worry! This book can help you work through almost any question you have about telecom. In the end, you will be very comfortable with your new environment and you will continue to impress others as the wonder kid they always believed you to be.

This book contains everything you need to know to order, maintain, and troubleshoot basic phone service. It covers the nuts and bolts of how phone systems work, why they work, and why it sometimes takes so long for them to work. When you have questions, simply track down the chapter and subsection that covers the issue in question, and after a little reading, you will be able to talk to any technician with confidence.

About This Book

This book was not intended for bedtime reading from cover to cover. It is a very helpful reference for telecom products, applications, and troubleshooting. The first few parts cover finding a phone service that best suits your business needs. Another part provides the ins and outs of ordering what you need. If you already have a phone system set up, move to the part that covers what you need to know to troubleshoot the circuits and systems you’ve installed.

Every chapter has been written with you, not an MIT technician, in mind. The information is easy to understand and digest, even if you have absolutely no prior telecom knowledge. If additional information might be helpful, I refer you to another chapter for more information.

Telecom For Dummies is applicable to almost all phone service in North America, including Canada, many of the Caribbean countries and Guam. The regulations and infrastructure for telecom vary between most countries, and although some aspects may be applicable in Europe and Asia, the steps for ordering and testing systems vary.