Distance Telecommunications Research Articles

Current information infrastructure policy in the United States

Initiatives and legislation by the Clinton/Gore Administration and Congress, specifically, the National Research and Education Network and the National Information Infrastructure Act, form the basis for current information infrastructure projects in both the public and private sector. This paper discusses legislative initiatives for networking and telecommunications services, and the political, technological and community infrastructures necessary to develop and support those services. Also assessed are the strategies of major infrastructure participants including the National Science Foundation, cable television and regional and long distance telecommunications companies, educational institutions and the Internet community, and community groups and local governments.

Estimation of household preferences for long distance telecommunications carrier

The competitive environment in long-distance telecommunications markets changed considerably with the divestiture of AT&T in 1982. A variety of providers appeared, offering myriad services. In this environment, customer selection of preferred long-distance carrier became more complicated and more important. In this paper, we analyze and quantify the determinants of this choice. To our knowledge, this focus is distinct. By contrast, the literature to date has analyzed the behavioral determinants of calling volume (local and long-distance) and the selection of local service options. In our analysis, we allow the alternative carriers to differ in terms of tariffs, reputation, quality, access, and specialized customer services. We quantify the interactive effects of these carrier attributes and customer demographics upon the selection of carrier. Price and income elasticities are estimated. A distinguishing feature of our analysis is that it examines behavioral differences among households in equal-access and unequal-access areas. We find that households assured of the convenience of 1 + dialling for their chosen carrier in equal-access areas display more rational and sophisticated decision making. On the other hand, households in unequal-access areas display greater status quo effects in their decision making.

Distance Learning and Telecommunications

Abstract The use of telecommunications in distance learning, and the New Educational Technology, are looked at from the point of view of the trainer and the learner. The importance of handling feedback is considered in a ‘transparent’ mode.

Computer Generated Charts for System Design of Long Distance Telecommunication Circuits Running Parallel to AC Electrified Railway Tracks

The use of computer generated charts in the system design of long distance telecommunication circuits, such as the location of isolating and amplifying points along the cable route subjected to interference from traction currents, is discussed. The application of the Algorithm developed to a concrete example throws open an interesting study on the behaviour of voltage induced per km of the telecommunication circuit per ampere of the current flowing in the power circuit (va) with respect to three main variables of the system ie the length of exposure of the telecommunication circuit (L), the distance of telecommunication cable from the track (D), and a parameter (A) which is dependant on the value of earth conductivity. The regular pattern exhibited by the family of graphs showing relationship between the variables A, D and L makes them ideally suited for use as ready reckoners in the system design of telecommunication circuits falling in the induction zone of ac electrified railway tracks.

Endogenous differentiation of services

This paper presents a model of competition between firms whose production involves increasingreturns. More than one firm can be active on the market only if they differentiate their product onquality grounds. This model can be applied to the case of vertical differentiation: the quality of a product is a measurable attribute and all the consumers agree on the ranking of qualities; or to the case of horizontal differentiation: the product is differentiated in varieties: each consumer has a prefered variety. The long distance telecommunication market in the United States is an example of competition on quality grounds. The authors show that acompetitive equilibrium exists under very weak assumptions. At equilibrium each firm has a market share gathering consumers with similar tastes.

Creating Political Advantage: The Rise of the Corporate Political Entrepreneur

Corporate political activity has been on the rise for the past 15 years. While the literature on business-government relations has described the growing corporate interest in politics, insufficient attention has been devoted to the political strategies of individual firms. This article explores one political strategy available to companies—a strategy we call corporate political entrepreneurship. We argue that firms can create political advantage for themselves by adopting policies that are analogous to those used by business entrepreneurs in the marketplace. After defining the characteristics of the corporate political entrepreneur, we explore the strategies of two companies, American Express and MCI. American Express developed an issue called trade in services, which turned the company into an important political actor in Washington. MCI used a similar strategy to build a corporate image and to keep the company alive; its political efforts also influenced the direction of government policy in the long distance telecommunications market. The article illustrates how loose alliances and direct involvement of CEOs can be critical for creating political advantage.

Insat Ground Segment

INSAT-1 B that was successfully put in geostationary orbit at 74° in September 1983, became world's first multi-purpose geostationary satellite to provide long distance telecommunication, TV and sound broadcasting and meteorological services over the Indian territory. The ground segment of INSAT network is correspondingly equally involved, extensive and normal. The INSAT ground segment consists of thirty three telecommunication earth stations (thirty fixed and three transportable), one hundred data collection, storage and transmission platforms (DCP), two thousand direct receiving sets (DRS) and a network operation control centre (NOCC). The actual derivation of the three intended services has been possible through wideband rearward links, linking the earth stations to switching centres, programme generating centres and meteorological data utilization centre (MDUC). The telecommunication services operate in the conventional C band. Meteorological downlinks are also in C band: DCP uplinks however are in UH...

A model for investigating the introduction of digital techniques based on a decomposition into elementary networks: methodology and first results

This paper concerns the definition of general rules for planning and decision making in the digitalization of a long distance telecommunications network. It is shown that, under some hypotheses, a network built around a transit centre may be decomposed into elementary triangular networks for which traffic routing and circuit routing are treated at the same time. In the proposed method the evolution in time of the existing network is optimized by minimizing the discounted cost and taking into account modularity constraints. In particular, using simple examples, the dependence of the transit threshold on the immediate environment is studied. Finally we show how the model may be used for setting up a network configurator.

No.4 ESS: Prologue

No. 4 ESS, a high-capacity, toll and tandem switching system, is the largest single system development ever undertaken by the Bell System. It is also the vehicle by which electronic switching was first introduced into the Bell System long distance telecommunications network. During 1976, four No. 4 ESS offices were placed in service the first in Chicago in January, the second in Kansas City in July, and the third and fourth in Jacksonville and Dallas in December.

Superconducting telecommunication cable studies in Japan

Large capacity and long distance telecommunications media are fields in which full use of the excellent properties of superconducting coaxial cables may be applied. By employing a new conductor structure, characteristics of a 1.6 mm miniature superconducting coaxial pair were remarkably improved in a short time. Features such as low-loss (of the order of 1 dB km −1 at 1 GHz), broad-band and low cross-talk etc. were demonstrated for these coaxial pairs. In cryogenic envelope studies, the 20–200 m long envelopes have been manufactured for evaluating thermal insulation and investigating cable cooling performance. Cooling experiments on the envelope, including cable splice, are now in progress.

Infra-red optical communication systems∗

This paper presents a survey of the present position of the technology of optical communication systems. The gallium arsenide laser and gas lasers are compared as sources. The Pockel effect, acoustic and Faraday effect modulators are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of various transmission systems are also discussed. Brief comments are made about various types of detectors. It is concluded that the information capacity is limited by the bandwidth of the source, modulator or detector. No satisfactory transmission system for long distance telecommunications use has yet been perfected, but guided systems of the type illustrated by a dielectric fibre guide, seem to offer the most promise. Despite the advances made in sources and modulators, many problems still remain before optical frequencies can be used for long distance telecommunication systems. Short range and outer space systems are feasible with the existing techniques.