Telecom Crash Course, Second Edition

This unique book serves as a readable, holistic introduction to telecommunications. Far more than an acronym-studded quick fix, Telecom Crash Course is a true tutorial that offers context, connections--and humor-- to teach the importance of key technologies. Author Steven Shepard, an accomplished writer and teachers, uses lively stories that deliver important points about the markets that drive the technologies. He provides not only rigorous technical accuracy, with explanations of each technology's economic importance, but a market and customer-focused analysis of the use and business significance of each technology – and how they relate to each other.

Steven Shepard is the president of the Shepard Communications Group in Williston, Vermont. A professional author and educator with 22 years of varied experience in the telecommunications industry, he has written books and magazine articles on a wide variety of topics. He is the author of Telecommunications Convergence: How to Profit from the Convergence of Technologies, Services, and Companies (McGraw-Hill: New York, 2000); A Spanish-English Telecommunications Dictionary (Shepard Communications Group: Williston, Vermont, 2001); Managing Cross-Cultural Transition: A Handbook for Corporations, Employees and Their Families (Aletheia Publications: New York, 1997); An Optical Networking Crash Course (McGraw-Hill: New York, February 2001); SONET and SDH Demystified (McGraw-Hill: New York, 2001); Telecomm Crash Course (McGraw-Hill: New York, October, 2001); Telecommunications Convergence, Second Edition (McGraw-Hill: New York, February 2002); Video-conferencing Demystified (McGraw-Hill: New York, April 2002); Metro Networking Demystified (McGraw-Hill: New York, October 2002); The Shepard Report: Charting a Path in Uncertain Times (SCG: March 2004); and RFID (McGraw-Hill: New York, July 2004). VoIP Crash Course will be released in mid-2005. Steve is also the Series Editor of the McGraw-Hill Portable Consultant book series.

Mr. Shepard received his undergraduate degree in Spanish and Romance Philology from the University of California at Berkeley and his masters degree in International Business from St. Mary's College. He spent 11 years with Pacific Bell in San Francisco in a variety of capacities including network analysis, computer operations, systems standards development, and advanced technical training, followed by 9 years with Hill Associates, a world-renowned telecommunications education company, before forming the Shepard Communications Group. He is a Fellow of the Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management of South Africa, a member of the Board of Directors of the Regional Educational Television Network, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. He is also the resident director of the University of Southern California's Executive Leadership and Advanced Management Programs in Telecommunications and adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California, the Garvin School of International Management (Thunderbird University), the University of Vermont, Champlain College, and St. Michael's College. He is married and has two children.

Mr. Shepard specializes in international issues in telecommunications with an emphasis on strategic technical sales, convergence and optical networking, the social implications of technical change, the development of multilingual educational materials, and the effective use of multiple delivery media. He has written and directed more than 40 videos and films, and written technical presentations on a broad range of topics for more than 70 companies and organizations worldwide. He is fluent in Spanish and routinely publishes and delivers presentations in that language. Global clients include major telecommunications manufacturers, service providers, software development firms, multinational corporations, universities, advertising firms, and regulatory bodies.