Here’s the list of telecom related books I’ve read in the past year or have plans to read this year. (And here’s the reading list from last year)

Voice Across The Sea / Arthur C. Clarke

I recently finished this one, the book covers the developments of early long distance submarine cables, right up until the 1950s, it’s a good mix of human interest and technological achievement.

I got introduced to Clarke from The Idea Factory – Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation which I read last year, and while it may have been written in the 1950s, this book covers the early days of Gutta-Percha wrapped steel cables being thrown in the ocean, and several failed attempts at linking the Atlantic, up to the Coax systems that were eventually replaced by Fibre after the book was published.

As well as his scientific achievements, and this book, Clarke is perhaps best remembered as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I’d suggest reading The Undersea Network after Voice Across the Sea, as it somewhat bookends this.

Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet / Andrew Blum

A well written introduction to “The Internet”. If you know AS numbers off the top of your head, you may find it lacking in technical detail, but this book isn’t meant to be a guide on IP Transit Engineering, but rather how the internet was built and continues to run, and the people behind it more than the tech.

The Undersea Network / Nicole Starosielski

A book about the Undersea optic fibre networks, cables, the people behind them and “Turbulent ecologies”.

Girdle Round the Earth – The History of Cable & Wireless / Hugh Barty-King

Having read Tubes, the Undersea Network and Voice Across the Sea, it made sense to learn more about Cable and Wireless’ history, this one has only just arrived, so I’ve yet to finish read it.

FreeSWITCH 1.8 / Anthony Minessale & Giovanni Maruzzelli

My skills were getting rusty having not used FreeSWITCH for a while, and I found this book just as useful on whatever read I’m up to now as it was when I first read it.

Kitten Clone – Inside Alcatel-Lucent / Douglas Coupland

Strange title for a book, but this short read covers Alcatel Lucent’s history, before the NSN / Nokia merger.

Signaling System 7: Basics / Lawrence Harte

A much lighter read than Signaling System No. 7 (SS7/C7), this is a good introduction to the topic, and has been a really good reference for the Demystifying SS7 & Sigtran Networks (With Labs!) series I’ve been writing.

Signaling System No. 7 (SS7/C7): Protocol, Architecture, and Services / Lee Dryburgh, Jeff Hewett

I pick this book up whenever I need a more detail on part of SS7, and I’ve been making an effort to go through the whole thing. It’s very thorough and covers all the “gotchas”.