Unlike Telecommunications Essentials, here the focus is less on infrastructure and more on the regulatory and market forces that shape telecommunications practice. A specific section of this class explains pertinent elements of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 with respect to deregulation dynamics, issues, and the emergence of new players such as CLECs and ALECs who are counterpoised to the ILECs, RBOCs and IXCs.
Technical knowledge is only one component of a telecommunications professional's knowledge base.
Understanding the broader industry perspective allows the network professional to interleave both sets of skills and so gain a sound understanding of all the issues at hand. So armed, the practitioner can make well-founded decisions that account for all the factors, both technical and otherwise. Identify key telecommunications policy-making and regulatory bodies, and describe the processes they use. Summarize major policy issues facing the industry, relating them to the telecommunications infrastructure. Explain the process by which standards are developed in the telecommunications industry.