Up until 1980 the South Pacific Republic of Vanuatu was a joint British-French colony, known as the New Hebrides Condominium. This dual colonial status has led many British and French colonial collectors to shun it and as a result fundamental aspects of its postal history have remained little studied. This is a great pity as the very nature of its Condominium status makes it a fascinating country to collect and research. In this book, we have attempted to redress this situation by analyzing the postal rates within the context of the evolution of its postal system. We also present a substantive revision of previous studies of New Hebrides postmarks and registration cachets / labels. The use of computer technology has also allowed us to resolve a number issues and to redefine several of the postmark subtypes. This has resulted in a comprehensive revision of the subject.

This book provides insights into infrastructure sector performance by focusing on the links between key indicators for utilities, and changes in ownership, regulatory agency governance, and corporate governance, among other dimensions. By linking inputs and outputs over the last 15 years, the analysis is able to uncover key determinants that have impacted performance and address why the effects of such dimensions resulted in significant changes in the performance of infrastructure service provision.

A thoroughly updated, comprehensive, and accessible guide to U.S. telecommunications law and policy, covering recent developments including mobile broadband issues, spectrum policy, and net neutrality. In Digital Crossroads, two experts on telecommunications policy offer a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the regulation of competition in the U.S. telecommunications industry. The first edition of Digital Crossroads (MIT Press, 2005) became an essential and uniquely readable guide for policymakers, lawyers, scholars, and students in a fast-moving and complex policy field. In this second edition, the authors have revised every section of every chapter to reflect the evolution in industry structure, technology, and regulatory strategy since 2005. The book features entirely new discussions of such topics as the explosive development of the mobile broadband ecosystem; incentive auctions and other recent spectrum policy initiatives; the FCC's net neutrality rules; the National Broadband Plan; the declining relevance of the traditional public switched telephone network; and the policy response to online video services and their potential to transform the way Americans watch television. Like its predecessor, this new edition of Digital Crossroads not only helps nonspecialists climb this field's formidable learning curve, but also makes substantive contributions to ongoing policy debates.

Telecommunications involves the transmission of audio, video, or digital information over significant distances, for a variety of purposes. This book presents and discusses topical programs and issues in telecommunications, including an overview of the FCC; broadband grants and loans; access to broadband networks; internet domain names; the FCC's authority to regulate net neutrality and automated political telephone calls in federal campaigns.

In the seven decades from its establishment in 1775 to the commercialization of the electric telegraph in 1844, the American postal system spurred a communications revolution no less far-reaching than the subsequent revolutions associated with the telegraph, telephone, and computer. This book tells the story of that revolution and the challenge it posed for American business, politics, and cultural life. During the early republic, the postal system was widely hailed as one of the most important institutions of the day. No other institution had the capacity to transmit such a large volume of information on a regular basis over such an enormous geographical expanse. The stagecoaches and postriders who conveyed the mail were virtually synonymous with speed. In the United States, the unimpeded transmission of information has long been hailed as a positive good. In few other countries has informational mobility been such a cherished ideal. Richard John shows how postal policy can help explain this state of affairs. He discusses its influence on the development of such information-intensive institutions as the national market, the voluntary association, and the mass party. He traces its consequences for ordinary Americans, including women, blacks, and the poor. In a broader sense, he shows how the postal system worked to create a national society out of a loose union of confederated states. This exploration of the role of the postal system in American public life provides a fresh perspective not only on an important but neglected chapter in American history, but also on the origins of some of the most distinctive features of American life today.

Telecommunications Industry in India represents the first comprehensive study of a state-run enterprise in the telecommunications industry. The study traces over a period of half a century (1948-2009) the growth and decline of Indian Telephone Industries (ITI). At the heart of the monograph stands one central interrogation: How does the socio-technical system of production in a state-controlled firm shape the relations linking the four main actors: the state, management, union and workers? The original contribution of this book lies in combining business history and labour history within a single conceptual framework. The author evaluates the broader conclusions about the telecommunications industry and public sector through the lens of an individual firm to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of change in the globalizing Indian economy. The work is well in command of the literature on the global business history counterparts of ITI in the telecommunications industry. It is further strengthened by the use of French material on the subject which is now accessible for the first time in English.

Worldwide, postal and delivery economics has attracted considerable interest. Numerous questions have arisen, including the role of regulation, funding the Universal Service Obligation, postal reform in Europe, Asia and North America, the future of national Postal Operators, demand and pricing strategies, and the principles that should govern the introduction of competition. Collected here are responses to these questions in the form of 24 essays written by researchers, practitioners, and senior managers from throughout the world. This volume will have a broad appeal, with an audience ranging from practitioners in the express and delivery industry, national Postal Operators and managers, to economists, regulators, competition lawyers, marketers, scholars in economic regulation, and institutional libraries.

Taking the case of Uganda, this book attempts to document the actual state of affairs with regard to ICTs in Africa. Uganda was one of the first African countries to liberalize the communications sector, which led to an explosion in access to mobile phones, the Internet and other advanced technologies. The country further developed a policy on universal access to set up a fund to support initiatives aiming to improve access to ICTs for poor and rural populations.

Learn the core business practices and strategies that can lead service providers to a sustainable business model

POSTMORTEM ON THE PLAGUE YEAR
* How telecom lost $816 billion in 2001—and ways to recognize errors in the making
* Roadmap of the potholes and pratfalls that tripped up Big Business
* Winners and losers compare notes on what they did, what happened, and why
* PLUS reinvention strategies for a shaken industry

WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN

In the midst of the rollout debacle, some companies made money. If you want your rollout to be profitable, you must understand what the winners did right—and what losing carriers and service providers did wrong. That’s exactly what telecom consultant Rajoo Nagar gives you in this power-packed guide, based on her own experiences in the maelstrom, plus in-depth investigations and interviews with industry leaders and analysts.

Look inside—
* Read industry leaders on the basics behind profitable rollouts
* Discover winning go-to-market strategies
* Investigate partnerships—help or hindrance?
* Get capital management strategies for the entire funding cycle
* Put together all vital pieces of a successful plan, from business model to marketing, operations, and support positions
* Apply practical how-to’s on competitive position-strengthening

Is your new service concept bulletproofed? Find out with this field guide to landmine-free launches.

As the Internet revolution continues to unfold and transform telecommunications, pressure is building for faster, less expensive, and more widely accessible broadband service. Such a development would facilitate improved and less expensive traditional applications such as voice telephony and web browsing. It would also enable new and useful applications such as Internet-based television, videoconferencing, and software distribution. Broadband has great potential to improve efficiency and productivity, even to improve national security in some cases. Broadband service and affordability, however, have consistently lagged well behind demand and progress in information technology, with damaging results. The Internet revolution remains incomplete and threatens to stagnate if the situation continues. In The Broadband Problem, economist and technology entrepreneur Charles H. Ferguson explains the causes and ramifications of this damaging bottleneck, and he offers suggestions on improving the current state of affairs. He asserts that current telecommunications law and policy have not provided sufficient levels of new entry, competition, and innovation in the local telecom market. The continuing dominance of ILECs (incumbent local exchange carriers) in that market impedes the healthy, and much-needed, development of an efficient broadband market. The result of these policy and market failures is inadequate technological progress, innovation, and productivity in advanced Internet services and telecommunication services generally. The broadband problem is holding us back, and thus must be addressed and solved. With this important volume, Charles Ferguson has contributed mightily to that mission.

Thanks to inexpensive computers and data communications, the speed and volume of human communication are exponentially greater than they were even a quarter-century ago. Not since the advent of the telephone and telegraph in the nineteenth century has information technology changed daily life so radically. We are in the midst of what Gerald Brock calls a second information revolution.

Brock traces the complex history of this revolution, from its roots in World War II through the bursting bubble of the Internet economy. As he explains, the revolution sprang from an interdependent series of technological advances, entrepreneurial innovations, and changes to public policy. Innovations in radar, computers, and electronic components for defense projects translated into rapid expansion in the private sector, but some opportunities were blocked by regulatory policies. The contentious political effort to accommodate new technology while protecting beneficiaries of the earlier regulated monopoly eventually resulted in a regulatory structure that facilitated the explosive growth in data communications. Brock synthesizes these complex factors into a readable economic history of the wholesale transformation of the way we exchange and process information.

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is global mobile data technology. More important it is a step en route to next-generation wireless, or 3G, for many networks in the US and most networks in Europe and Asia. Questions like when can we expect European take-up of GPRS?, what kind of roaming will the standards bodies adopt?, what functionality will first-generation terminals provide?, or how will GPRS change the basic business practices of GSM operators? all need to be answered before implementations proceed. This book helps the wireless industry gets its arms around the issues with contributions from many of the pioneering companies in the mobile data industry. It equips professionals with plain English explanations of technology, markets, billing systems, terminals and management challenges.

PRACTICAL ROADMAP FOR DESIGNING AND DEPLOYING A SAN
Fibre Channel has come into its own as the defining network architecture for Storage Area Networks (SANs), which are proving critical for managing the volume and complexity of data generated by Internet-era applications. Fibre Channel for SANs, by Dr. Alan F. Benner, shows you how Fibre Channel works, how it integrates with other protocols and systems, and how to implement it to create a SAN for fast access to mass storage. It walks you through the ANSI standard’s 5 levels, from the physical transmission level through interfaces to upper layer protocols, and demonstrates mapping SCSI and IP over Fibre Channel. You get a wealth of timesaving illustrations and practical suggestions for troubleshooting. You learn how to:

*Build expertise in the standard used by ISPs for Web page storage, and by enterprise data centers for managing multi-Terabyte storage requirements

*Create bandwidth-sparing solutions for multimedia—voice, video, animation, music—and real-time video conferencing

*Implement logins and logouts, link services, error detection and recovery, flow control, and more

HOW TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES

FEATURING ITS OWN REGULARLY UPDATED WEBSITE, TELECOM CONVERGENCE IS THE ONLY SURVIVAL MANUAL YOU NEED FOR THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF TELECOM

In this new edition of Telecommunications Convergence, globally recognized telecom guru Steven Shepard gives you a life raft for the whirlpool of todays tech market. With the keen analytical skills and deep knowledge of the industry that have earned him marquee status at telecom conferences around the world, Shepard breaks down the key questions you must answer for your own company and career.

Steven Shepard predicted the current overcapacity, convergence shakeout, and downturn in telecom. Now, in this second edition, he gives you nearly 300 new pages of solutions that work--an almost entirely new book. With this information you and your company can survive--and even thrive--in the challenging environment he forecast.

If youre serious about telecom, you need Shepards technology, service, and management answers to the most critical questions you face:

* What survival strategies will work for my company?

* How do I build a company-sparing blueprint?

* Can management and network hierarchy changes improve the outcome?

* Capability: build or buy?

* What are the smart companies doing right now?

* And most important of all--whats next?

Responding to the enduring lure of the West that captured his imagination as a child, Jerry Ellis decides to follow the trail of the Pony Express, a short-lived, hell-for-leather mail delivery service that lasted just one and a half years starting in 1860 but has marked itself in national memory ever since. Starting his journey in St. Joseph, Missouri, Ellis follows the Pony Express trail across Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada to the end of the line in San Francisco.Ellis succeeds in completing his twenty-one-hundred-mile journey by foot, horseback, covered wagon, hitchhiking, and canoe. Open to what he finds, including his own frailties, Ellis reports with sympathy and humor on the strange variety of the modern West.Jerry Ellis is the author of Walking the Trail: One Man's Journey along the Cherokee Trail of Tears, also available in a Bison Books edition.

CUT THROUGH THE HYPE! INDUSTRY INSIDERS COMPARE AND CONTRAST WIRELESS INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES AND MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL

Need to know how i-mode stacks up against SMS or WAP? Or the inside scoop on Bluetooth? Confused about XML and WML? Making sound dollars-and-cents business decisions about wireless internet technologies just got a lot easier! In Wireless Internet Crash Course each of the competing technologies is put under a microscope and dissected feature by feature so you know all their respective strengths and weaknesses, distinguishing characteristics, and which can best meet your companys needs.

The hard-to-get, detailed marketing analysis found in this plain-English, no-nonsense resource gives you the power to evaluate, decide, and lead in a field that moves at the speed of light and where a wrong decision can cost your company millions of dollars.

An indispensable companion for wireless telecom managers, developers, network managers, engineers, technicians, sales and marketing personnel, and savvy investors, and required reading for any industry executive competing in the mobile applications arena, Wireless Internet Crash Course is your best guide through the confusing maze of wireless internet technologies.

LOOK INSIDE FOR . . .

* The comparative strengths and weaknesses of SMS, i-mode, WAP, Bluetooth, and other wireless internet technologies
* An analysis of existing and potential wireless internet markets with a focus on where the real money is and will be in the future
* Detailed coverage of interoperability issues
* The inside scoop on mobile application development languages, including XML, c-HTML, WML
* 2.5G and 3G solutions and requirements
* Real world business models

THE HOWS AND WHYS AND APPLICATIONS ON SONET/SDH--MINUS THE JARGON

Intended for use in broadband ISDN and ATM networks, SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) and SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) have taken on a life of their own. As fiber optic cable becomes the standard for data transmission, telcos and other carriers are deploying more high-speed SONET/SDH technologies to support leased-line services such as DS-1 and DS-3. In search of ever-faster data speeds, leading corporations such as Boeing, AT&T, and Disney are moving their private global networks to a SONET/SDH infrastructure.

THIS BOOK IS A MUST-READ IF--

* Yourre at the point where technology turns to business and shoot-or-pass decisions get made

* Staying on top of whats hot in communications is your job

* You need to understand the growth and workings of SONET/SDH, but dont have time for MIT

* You want to compare cots, potentials, and performance of SONET/SDH with other technologies

* Youd like business-model case studies of DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) and WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) that make sense

* You sell, market, or manage for a firm that develops SONET/SDH systems

* You make career choices in telecom, Internet service, networking, or the upper echelons of any large business

* You invest in communications equipment makers, service providers, or applications creators

* Youre a curious technophile who cant get enough insider details on new communications strategies, methods, and trends

* You see that theres more sun in the winners circle than in the also-ran column

The easiest way to size up SONET/SDH for your network--or simply to better understand these rapidly expanding technologies--SONET/SDH DEMYSTIFIED is the ideal shortcut to the front edge of high-speed networking.

Influential industry and government leaders speak out on the first major overhaul of US communications policy in over 60 years. Contributors include: F. Duane Ackerman; William P. Barr; Thomas J. Bliley; Paul W. MacAvoy; Richard D. McCormick; Gregory Sidak; Robert D. Willig; and John D. Zeglis.

Call centers have revolutionized the way business gets done. This book dissects this explosively growing phenomenon, revealing new efficiency-boosting techniques, gainful technologies and applications, and profit-increasing management stratagems. Call Center Operations Profiting from Teleservices Charles E. Day, CMC In this expert guide, one of the leading computer-telecom integration (CTI) consultants in the United States shows you call center deployment and operation from the inside out. Exposing new uses, cost-cutting technologies, efficiency-boosting strategies, and assessment methods with superior accuracy, famed authority Charles E. Day makes it clear why call center operations increased by more than 700% between 1983 and 1997, and continue to grow. The heartbeats of many of today's businesses--serving functions as diverse as telemarketing, customer ordering and service, help desks, inside sales, reservations, and financial services by phone--call centers offer one of the best paradigms for coaxing every bit of efficiency-boosting power from new communications and computing technologies. In these pages, Charles E. Day, an expert who has helped hundreds of well-known businesses deploy and improve call centers, demonstrates how to maximize call center efficiency, yields, and cost savings in your business. Inside, you'll find page after page of ways to: Analyze the gains possible from call centers. Fill a variety of business needs with integrated telephone and computing technologies. Integrate telephone services and computing with efficient, effective technologies. Link databases, call handling, workstations, GUIs, legacy systems, software packages, and networks for a better bottomline. Explore practical, profitable applications of CTI in depth Test-run a call center with out-of-house resources. Get new ideas for call center uses from examples throughout the book. Expand your customer base and improve relationships with existing customers. Boost employee performance. Design a state-of-the-art call center that optimizes use of available resources and potential return. Packed with detailed strategies that translate technology into business solutions, this guide is clear enough for a novice to use. Charles E. Day's Call Center Operations is a resource likely to pay for itself by several orders of magnitude.

The growth of the Internet has been propelled in significant part by user investment in infrastructure: computers, internal wiring, and the connection to the Internet provider. This "bottom-up" investment minimizes the investment burden facing providers. New technologies such as wireless and data transmission over power lines, as well as deregulation of telecommunications and electric utilities, will provide new opportunities for user investment in intelligent infrastructure as leverage points for Internet and broadband access.Recasting the "problem of the last 100 feet" as "the opportunity of the first 100 feet," this book challenges individuals, businesses, and policymakers to rethink fundamental issues in telecommunications policy. The contributors look at options for Internet and broadband access from the perspective of homeowners, apartment complexes, and small businesses. They evaluate the opportunities and obstacles for bottom-up infrastructure development and the implications for traditional and alternative providers at the neighborhood, regional, and national levels. Already, some argue that Internet service will become the common denominator platform on which all other services can be carried.A Publication of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project.

This is a research and reference guide to the telecommunications industry in the United States, providing an account of legislative and policy changes up until the publication of the work. Contributions by scholars in telecommunications law and policy survey the post-1996 legislative field, giving overviews of the 1996 Act itself, the impact of the legislation on national and international competition, regulation of the industry and the MCI/FCC cases in California, mergers and acquisitions, taxation and FCC reform.

The 1996 Telecommunications Act requires telecommunications carriers to subsidize Internet services to schools and libraries. Hausman shows that the FCC's proposed tax to subsidize those services is economically inefficient.

Cellular Telephones and Pagers is an overview of the basics of mobile telephone and paging technology and related issues. It is written for the interested layman as well as the professional looking for basic information.
The first half of the book deals mainly with the technology: operation, transmission, special-case services, and troubleshooting. The second half covers the related issues that surround the cellular industry, such as security, regulations, international markets, and future developments. The combination makes this a valuable tool for business people who want an overview of cellular systems, or for technical professionals who need to update their knowledge.
Steve Gibson is the author of several books in the telecommunications field. He makes his home in Reston, VA.
Easy-to-read, light technical approach to cellular technology.
Includes coverage of economic, regulatory, and international issues.
New advances in security and mobile communications.