This easy-to-understand explanation of major aspects of today's telecommunications systems aims to give readers comprehensive coverage of the four major areas of telephone systems - station apparatus, transmission, switching and signalling. While maintaining all the fundamental information from the earlier editions, this revised and updated edition includes a perspective on telephony that includes central office, local loop, subscriber loop carrier, switching, multiplexing, LATA, signalling and network architecture. It also includes developments in fibre optic systems, information on PCS systems including GSM, TDMA, CDMA and policy implications of the US Telecommunications Act of 1996.