Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good history, examples iffy
Comment: Text required for a class... author does good job presenting history of telecom, but takes liberties with many of the examples, deriving answers with concepts not presented or explained in the materials. Plus, working the supplied answers to example problems backwards (because my answers didn't match the author's), I've come across two examples I believe the author made a fundamental error, to-which the teacher says, "yeah, I guess you could do it either way."
Though, even with the liberties, the majority of the text is very readable and comprehendible. It's actually not a bad book to read, even if there wasn't a class-requirement to do so.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good info but poorly written.
Comment: I am taking a Master's class in Telecom that is using this book. There is a lot of good information in this book. But it is a tough read. The biggest problem is the author's writing style. I wish he would have taken a tech writing class. If he had, he would have learned that simpler is better. The material is complicated enough. Write the way you speak. Page 13 for example. "In general tems the equipment assoicated with any particular switching machine can be categorized as providing one of the following functions.. (lists the three functions of a switch)"
What he is trying to say is: "A switch performs 3 basic functions..."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fundamental to the Disipline
Comment: This book is a top notch treastie on the fundamentals of digital telephony. This books offers an excellent high level overview of the history of the telephony network and the migration to a nearly all digital network including detailed coverage of all aspects and issues of the modern digital systems. As you advance through the chapters of the book it covers each topic is a well balanced amount of detail while providing insight into not only "how", by "why".The book is very well referenced and researched and can serve as a 'root node' for further investigation on nearly any digital telephony related topic. While the book is not particularly light reading, it is extremely well written and I would highly recommend it to both beginngers and experts alike.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The bible of the telephone network
Comment: I must admit up front that I'm a long time fan of Dr. Bellamy's book "Digital Telephony" having extensively used the second edition. That edition still sits on my shelf, filled with yellow highlights and stick-on tabs with notes indicating certain areas of the book. I had reviewed that edition with praise, only mentioning that the book needed an update. When the third edition was released, I immediately bought a copy. There just isn't another book (at least none I've found) that explains how the telephone network "works". The book covers everything, from speech coding, to modulation, to switching, and more. If your work requires that you have an understanding of the network, this is the book for you.
The third edition continues to provide this broad view of the public network, adding or expanding coverage of newer areas such as ATM and optical communications.
I highly recommend this book to all communications engineers and network professionals.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Everything you need to know about communications
Comment: I teach communications concepts and have found this book to be the single most valuable book in my pursuit of knowledge. Every subject I've needed more information on is covered. Most subjects are explained with a good understanding of communications and concepts assumed by the author...a strong math background would also be helpful. All in all I have yet to find a better all around book that encompasses the communications field as well as Digital Telephony does.
