The Great Telecom Meltdown

Providing readers with an authoritative account of what contributed to the "Great Telecom Crash," this insightful resource explores the roots of the perfect storm that buffeted telecom and Internet companies and investors.

With the demise of WorldCom amidst a flurry of accounting scandals dominating the front pages, and following hotly in the footsteps of the equally spectacular downfall of other telecoms giants including Global Crossing and Lucent Technologies in recent months, The Great Telecoms Swindle investigates the reasons behind a roller coaster ride that is set to continue for some time yet. Vivendi, France Telecom, Vodaphone and numerous other corporate behemoths all face testing and possibly life-threatening times that will demand radical solutions in the coming months. The telecoms story is set to run and run and investors are set to continue to feel the heat. For a market that, as little as eighteen months ago amounted to a license to print money, the question 'what went wrong?' must urgently be asked. How could companies like Cisco Systems go from being paragons of virtue in the new corporate age to near pariahs embroiled in a welter of financial difficulties in such a short space of time? Is 'next generation telecoms' nothing more than a myth, a triumph of hype over reality? Tracking the rise and fall of the telecoms market from deregulation in the eighties through the advent of the mobile world, and on to broadband, 3G, and the mobile Internet the authors uncover what fuelled the boom, where the mistakes were made (by industry players and investors alike), and what if anything the future holds. Taking the lid off the headlines, The Great Telecoms Swindle reveals and examines the real problems in the telecoms market today, and exposes an industry that is entirely unsure of its own future value proposition.

Shaping American Telecommunications examines the technical, regulatory, and economic forces that have shaped the development of American telecommunications services. This volume is both an introduction to the basic technical, economic, and regulatory principles underlying telecommunications, and a detailed account of major events that have marked development of the sector in the United States. Beginning with the introduction of the telegraph and continuing through to current developments in wireless and online services, authors Christopher H. Sterling, Phyllis W. Bernt, and Martin B.H. Weiss explain each stage of telecommunications development, examining the interplay among technical innovation, policy decisions, and regulatory developments. Offering an integrated treatment of the interplay among technology, policy, and economics as key factors defining the development of the telecommunications sector in the United States, this volume also provides: *background material to facilitate understanding of each sector; *contexts for many so-called "new" issues, problems, and trends, demonstrating origins from years or decades in the past; and *careful annotation, documentation, and reference tables to enable further research on the topics discussed. This unique multidisciplinary approach provides a balanced view of U.S. telecommunications history, in context with relevant economic, legal, social, and technical analyses. As such, it is essential reading for advanced students in telecommunications needing to understand how the telecommunications industry and service developed to its current form. The volume will also serve as a supplemental text in courses on telecommunications regulation, and it will be of value to professionals in the field seeking context and background for their daily work.

This volume is a theoretically informed comparative analysis of the telecommunications and information policy-making process in two major developing economies, China and India. With a focus on how policies are made rather than what those policies are, the book investigates how policy actors interact within institutional structures to define policy problems and identify potential solutions. The authors explain the evolution of these policy-making systems as the two countries liberalized their economies and opened their media and telecommunications systems to competition over the past two-and-a-half decades. With applications in numerous international contexts, this book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in public policy studies, telecommunications, business, development economics, political science, Asian studies, and public administration.

This practical resource provides a survey on the technologies, protocols, and architectures that are widely used in practice to implement networked multimedia services. The book presents the background and basic concepts behind multimedia networking, and provides a detailed analysis of how multimedia services work, reviewing the diverse network protocols that are of common use to implement them. To guide the explanation of concepts, the book focuses on a representative set of networked multimedia services with proven success and high penetration in the telecommunication market, namely Internet telephony, Video-on-Demand (VoD), and live IP television (IPTV). Contents are presented following a stepwise approach, describing each network protocol in the context of a networked multimedia service and making appropriate references to the protocol as needed in the description of other multimedia services. This book also contains questions and exercises to provide the reader with insight on the practical application of the explained concepts. Additionally, a laboratory practice is included, based on open-source tools and software, to analyze the operation of an Internet telephony service from a practical perspective, as well as to deploy some of its fundamental components.

Addressing the vulnerabilities in today's critical infrastructure to natural disasters and terrorism, this practical book describes what public safety and other officials need to do to protect should be doing to pipelines, power plants, telecommunications, and other essential services before the unthinkable happens. The book explains how to maintain command and control in any disaster, and how to predict the probability of those disasters. Written by two highly regarded experts in the field, this one-of-a-kind guidebook shows how to simplify risk assessments and emergency response procedures to disasters affecting our critical national and local infrastructure.

Praise for BEST PRACTICES in TALENT MANAGEMENT "This book includes the most up-to-date thinking, tools, models, instruments and case studies necessary to identify, lead, and manage talent within your organization and with a focus on results. It provides it all—from thought leadership to real-world practice." PATRICK CARMICHAEL HEAD OF TALENT MANAGEMENT, REFINING, MARKETING, AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS, SAUDI ARAMCO "This is a superb compendium of stories that give the reader a peek behind the curtains of top notch organizations who have wrestled with current issues of talent management. Their lessons learned are vital for leaders and practitioners who want a very valuable heads up." BEVERLY KAYE FOUNDER/CEO: CAREER SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL AND CO-AUTHOR, LOVE 'EM OR LOSE 'EM "This is a must read for organization leaders and HR practitioners who cope with the today's most critical business challenge—talent management. This book provides a vast amount of thought provoking ideals, tools, and models, for building and implementing talent management strategies. I highly recommend it!" DALE HALM ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM MANAGER, ARIZONA PUBLIC SERVICE "If you are responsible for planning and implementing an effective talent and succession management strategy in your organization, this book provides the case study examples you are looking for." DORIS SIMS AUTHOR, BUILDING TOMORROW'S TALENT "A must read for all managers who wish to implement a best practice talent management program within their organization" FARIBORZ GHADAR WILLIAM A. SCHREYER PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL MANAGEMENT, POLICIES AND PLANNING SENIOR ADVISOR AND DISTINGUISHED SENIOR SCHOLAR CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS FOUNDING DIRECTOR CENTER FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS STUDIES

This book is a multidisciplinary study of the Indian Ocean region, bringing together perspectives from the disciplines of history, defense and strategic studies, cultural and religious studies, and environmental studies. From the earliest exchanges through Sumerian and Harappan trade, to emerging geopolitical alliances in the twenty-first century, this volume demonstrates both the continuity and change of the region as well as its unity and diversity. The expanse of this ocean and its littoral rim is connected through the social imaginary, which enables these processes. It is with the stories of the peoples inhabiting this rim that this book is concerned—told both through micro studies of the everyday lives of the region’s people and through macro studies centered around civilizations, empires, nation-states, and climate change.