Telecommunications Test

TEL109

Quiz #1

Spring 2005

Instructions:

1. This quiz is regarded as "open notes" only. This means you may use any notes you have taken in class, or any handouts that were give to you in class but not your textbook.

2. Each question carries equal weight (20pts each).

3. Partial credit will be given where warranted, but you must write out some response for each question.

4. The grade for this quiz will be averaged together with the grade for quiz #2 and this average will represent 1/3 of your term grade.

5. Record all of your answers on these sheets. If you need additional pages, be sure that your name is on each one.

Questions:

1. What are the provisions of the Kingsbury Commitment? What was the major impact on the Public Telephone Network?

The provisions of the Kingsbury Commitment were as follows:

* AT&T would not buy any more Independent companies or service providers without the Justice Departments approval.

* AT&T would allow Independent companies to connect to the AT&T network so that homes only needed one phone and one phone company to provide service.

* AT&T would allow any company to interconnect with other independents and AT&T to complete calls anywhere in America.

AT&T also declared that they would sell all its interest in Western Union.

The major impact on the public telephone network was as follows:

The public telephone network was now all open to any company and this in turn made it open to any home with a telephone and telephone service to call anywhere in the US. Also this commitment helped to stop AT&T from completely buying out all the smaller telephone companies and monopolizing the entire telephone service provider market. This commitment made it possible for smaller phone companies to survive in this market. Lastly it also helped to prevent AT&T from having to deal with the consequences of the Department of Justice using the Sherman Antitrust Act to bring charges against them.

2. What agencies are responsible for communications policy on the national and the local levels?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is responsible for all federal communications regulation of policy and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is responsible for regulating telecommunications within the state.

3. Explain what is meant by:

(a) Simplex Transmission

Simplex Transmission is transmission of signals in one direction only, such as in radio and television there is no way to send a signal back it is strictly one way.

(b) Half-duplex Transmission

Half-duplex Transmission is a when signals can go in both directions (to and from) they take turns such as with a CB radio, each side takes a turn sending and receiving over the same medium.

(c) Full duplex Transmission

Full duplex Transmission will allow signals to be sent both back and forth (sending and receiving) at the same time. In most cases full duplex Transmission is really made up of two Simplex Transmissions flowing in opposite directions such as a highway where you have two separate lanes flowing in the opposite directions allowing traffic