As with any industry, telecommunications has its own terminology,  co-operative and regulatory organisations, and commercial considerations. PTT’s new, and unique online course for the first time provides an  overview of telecommunications that considers these issues.

The PTT course TMA: “Telecoms for managers” also introduces the infrastructure and services provided by modern telecommunications systems while keeping technical details to a minimum.

This course is an ideal introduction for those joining the industry in a managerial or other non-technical role. The course is also suitable for those working in a particular technical specialisation who want an appreciation of other aspects of telecoms service provision.

More information about this course is available here >>

The first cellular radio mobile phone call from a handheld device was made 40 years ago today, on 3 April 1973. The caller was Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola who demonstrated the device in a street while in the presence of reporters. However, it was to be several years later before the first commercial services were launched.

In 1981, the first multinational mobile cellular telephone system was developed within the Scandinavian countries of Denmark Sweden, Finland, and Norway. In 1983, Ameritech started the first American commercial cellular service in Chicago. In 1985, Cellnet and Racal-Vodafone were awarded licences to offer analogue cellular phones in the UK. These first generation mobile systems used analogue techniques and large bulky telephone handsets (commonly referred to as “bricks”).

PTT offers a range of online courses covering cellular radio. For details visit http://www.ptt.co.uk/catalogue.htmla

Internet access has become an indispensable part of our lives and our expectations for high speed communications have grown. Optical fibre plays a key role in most service providers’ plans to satisfy the demand for fast broadband services. Technologies such as ADSL and VDSL that provide high speed broadband over copper wires are also still important especially where the use of fibre is uneconomic.

PTT’s unrivalled catalogue of online telecoms related courses includes several courses dealing with the technologies that allow high speed Internet access:

PTT’s new course FAB: “Optical access networks”  concentrates on the practical aspects of installing and testing fibre to the home (FTTH) connections. It also describes fibre to the building (FTTB) and fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) installations. This interactive course was developed with co-operation from leading FTTx equipment manufacturers ensuring its accuracy and relevance.

The companion course FAA: “Passive optical networks” describes how fibre connections are shared by a number of customers using GPON or EPON techniques.

The just released updated course DLA: “ADSL principles” discusses the limitations of existing copper-wire access networks and describes how ADSL and VDSL techniques maximise data transfer rates over copper pairs.

This course joins its companion course DLB: “DSL systems” which provides an in-depth investigation of the structure, functional components, operation and testing of systems that provide DSL services to customers.