Telecommunications History & Policy into the 21st Century

2 A Digression: Basic Telecommunication Technology, Policy, and Concepts — Then, Now, and in the Future

21 CHAPTER 2 A Digression: Basic Telecommunication Technology, Policy, and Concepts—Then, Now, and in the Future There are certain telecommunications technologies, policies, and concepts that are essential to know in order to truly understand the essence and ramifications brought about by evolution and change within the industry. The intent of this chapter is to help you toward this enlightenment relative to these topics, thereby providing you with not only a sound foundation of understanding but also a basis for interpretation and projection forward. This chapter will explicitly discuss Networks, Numbers, Toll-Free Service, U.S. Telecommunications Policy, and selected Concepts with just enough depth to provide this foundation. Readers may wish to further research some of these topics on their own, as there is ample information available on each of these individual topics to compose volumes. Additionally, there are end-of-chapter suggested research questions that, when answered, will yield further learning and discussion opportunities on key topics. Networks Networks are of many and varied types. There are human networks consisting of business, entrepreneurial, social, economic, good old boy, and dating, to name a few. There are media networks that might include radio , TV, and gaming. Technical networks would include computer and telephone for sure and may be wired or wireless and have a local (LAN), campus (CAN), metropolitan (MAN) or wide-area network (WAN) scope. Often these are studied via breaking them into smaller “bite size” pieces using either the OSI or TCP/IP reference model criteria. Technical networks might also include energy transmission networks like electrical, gas, and oil. Within the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering, there are flow networks and neural networks, and network 22 Telecommunications History & Policy theory or diktyology is a subject within applied mathematics and physics that coincides with graph theory. There are likely many other unique and specialized networks, a few of which are: religious networks, spatial networks, storage networks, and transportation networks. Beyond these, some may even believe in and study paranormal networks. So as to not exhaust you and to help us maintain focus on topic, this section will address technical networks from the vantage point of computer-oriented telephone networks. Suffice it to say that twenty-five years after divestiture, many of the networks listed use these types of technical networks and, in some cases, are converging into hybrid communication networks. For instance, today most media networks run on these computer-oriented telephone networks and much social networking is done through them as well. Modern carrier networks are converging voice and data networks into hybrid IP networks and smart business entities are taking advantage of this convergence opportunity. Today’s networks are benefiting from the great breakthroughs in fiber optic transmission and other technological advances. However, the most significant change agent in the field of networking today is the movement from so-called traditional circuit-switched networks to IP networks. The underlying reason is simple–economics. Properly featured and configured IP networks offer a great financial advantage over traditional circuit -switched networks for everyday voice calling. While a great advantage , some traditionalists view this phenomenon as destructive to the set of current computer and telephone networks and the laws, revenue streams, policies, and structures that arose during the heyday of the current PSTN. While destructive, it doesn’t really matter, as change often butts up against restraint. When properly founded, change will occur. Let’s first look at traditional circuit-switched computer and telephone networks which include the Public Switched Telephone Network or PSTN that most of us used for voice calling during the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. This is sometimes referred to as the POTS or plain old telephone service network. The trend toward today’s modern PSTN architecture began with the introduction of the transistor, computer, and stored-program-controlled switching systems, which were introduced in the mid-1960s. Intelligence and efficiency were provided to the network by the marriage of computer and tele- Basic Telecommunication Technology, Policy, & Concepts 23 communications technology and was manifest by advanced features of the day such as three-way calling, speed dialing and call waiting. Telecommunications networks became more intelligent in the late 1970s when the first common-channel signaling (CCS) links were installed for routing call-setup and other call-control information between central office switches.22 CCS links are special, separate from the call path links or paths and carry signaling information regarding...