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• Preface

• Alexander Graham Bell

• Telecommunications history

• How the telephone works

• Phone FUN facts

• Why the Phone Works When the Lights GO OUT

• FTTP (Fiber to the Prem)

• Future of Telecommunications

• Crossword Puzzle

• Word Search

• Glossary

• Credits

• Speech by Thomas Watson

Telecom Glossary

Acoustics The branch of science pertaining to the transmission of sound. The vibration of molecules in the air produces waves, which we call sound. The amplitude (height) and frequency (width) of these waves produces the pitch and volume.

Aerodynamics A branch of dynamics that deals with the motion of air and other gaseous fluids and with the forces acting on bodies in motion relative to such fluids.

Aeronautics A science dealing with the operation of aircraft; the art of science of flight.

Alphanumeric A set of characters that contain both letters and numbers are used as an identifier. An example would be the serial number or model number of a product, such as Armada E500.

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange: The coding method used by small computers for converting letters, numbers, punctuation, and control codes into digital form the computer can process. This is a series of 1’s and 0’s representing each character and control code.

Analog A signal in the form of a continuous sine wave varying in step with the transmitted information of amplitude (volume) and frequency (pitch).

Antitrust Laws and regulations enacted to prevent Trusts and Large corporations from becoming monopolies and dominating an industry or service thus being able to control the economy.

Battery Devices that store energy in the form of chemical bonds and convert this energy directly into electricity on demand. Consists of a cathode, positive pole of a cell, an anode, negative pole of a cell and an electrolyte, a medium that ions pass through carrying current internally.

Binary A system where only two values or states are possible for a particular condition such as “on” or “off” or “zero” or “one”. The binary code represents each letter and number with a series of ones and zeros.10101 = 21 in decimal.

Call Forwarding A service available in many central offices and PBX’s that allows incoming calls to be diverted or sent to another telephone device or place.

Core The central glass element of a fiber optic cable through which the light is transmitted. The core is usually in the center of the cable bounded by the cladding and then the sheath or outer covering of the cable.

Clad, Cladding The transparent material, usually glass, that surrounds the core of optical fiber. Cladding glass has a lower refractive index than core glass. As the light signal travels down the central core transmission path it naturally spreads, the cladding causes the light to be reflected back into the central core. This serves to maintain the signal strength over a long distance.