Newton's Telecom Dictionary, 25th Edition: Telecommunications, Networking, Information Technologies, The Internet, Wired, Wireless, Satellites and Fiber,   ISBN:9780979387333

Customer Rating: 

Speaking from over 20 years of experience working at LECs and domestic and international LD carriers, and having used various telecom and networking dictionaries over the years, I can say with certainty that Newton's Telecom Dictionary is the best -- by a mile.

Each year 500 to 1,000 new definitions are added to Newton's, and existing definitions are updated, improved, or enhanced in other ways. No other telecom dictionary on the market has even half as many definitions as Newton's. In fact, if you combine the definitions from all the other telecom dictionaries and weed out duplicates, their combined total probably still will be less than half of what's in Newton's. Harry Newton clearly loves telecom, as shown by the copiousness of the dictionary, the continuous additions to it, and the continuous refinements of it.

Our company currently has around 30 copies of the 25th edition and 300 copies of earlier editions. Newton's is used in the following departments: network engineering, network planning, circuit layout, security, legal and regulatory, enterprise sales, small and medium business sales, consumer sales, wholesale markets, sales engineering, managed network services, strategy and business development, marketing, customer service, billing operations, operator services, IT, education and training, corporate communications, outside plant, station I&M, wireless ops, and PMO; it's also used by our company's senior executives.

Newton's Telecom Dictionary is widely used in industry, government, the U.S. military, and academia. It is frequently cited by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and in documents submitted to the FCC by petitioners. Newton's Telecom Dictionary is also cited in print by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. District Courts, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the U.S. Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS), the U.S. National Communications System (NCS), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Small Business Administration (SBA), public utilities commissions (PUCs), public service commissions (PSCs), state and municipal government in the U.S. and abroad, and overseas PTTs (Post, Telephone, and Telegraph organizations).

It is also cited by over 100 textbooks, handbooks, and other technical reference books.

I've seen Newton's at telcos, cellular phone companies, long-distance carriers, broadband service providers, MVNOs, electrical engineering firms, defense contractors, systems integration companies, software services companies, commercial and public radio stations, a TV station, an Army satellite communications station, law firms, an ad agency, the IT department of a health services organization, the IT department of a realty company, the offices of a technology magazine publisher, universities, high schools, and state government offices.

Users of earlier editions of Newton's will be very pleased with this 25th anniversary edition. It has more terms than ever -- probably closer to 26,000 by my reckoning (based on a 10-page random sample) than the 24,950 indicated on the book's cover -- and a much more visually appealing and readable typography than was used in earlier editions. There are some new tables in the dictionary, expansions and updates of earlier definitions, and additional timeline dates.

Another interesting change is that the 25th edition uses a much thinner paper than earlier editions. It's the kind of paper that you see in books published in parts of the Far East, for example, in China and Taiwan. There are two practical benefits of this. First, even though the dictionary has grown by over 200 pages from its previous edition -- there are now 1,274 pages in the dictionary, not 1,250 pages as incorrectly stated in various booksellers' descriptions of it -- the dictionary is actually much lighter and thinner than previous editions. You can now easily carry it around with you. Second, because of the thin paper, it makes the book more flexible. You can open it to any page, let go of the page, and the book will stay open on that page.

This dictionary belongs in every department in every telco, cellco, cableco, pubco, satco, IXC, VoIP provider, AOS provider, systems integrator, managed services provider, equipment manufacturer, data center, and carrier hotel. Anyone outside of these industries who is involved in some way with telecom or networking, or who is studying it in school, or who writes about it for a living, will also find the 25th edition an indispensible resource.