The AbleComm Guide to Phone Systems provides the information people need to select phone systems and related telecommunications equipment for professional offices, small- and medium-size businesses and homes. This book will help people choose and use their telephone system properly, to get the most out of it and to keep it working; and will even help people who sell phone equipment. Products covered include simple and complex phone systems, voicemail, auto-attendant, headsets, back-up power, music on hold, cordless phones and more. There are extensive sections on telecom terminology, technology trends, choosing a phone system, phone system features, wire and cable, installation and troubleshooting. The book also covers the various technologies for making phone calls: analog, DSL, VoIP, ISDN, wireless, T1 and cable. The extensive acronym section covers such terms as LECs, ILECS and BLECs plus LANs, MANs and WANs, and even POPs, POTS, SIM, SIC and SNAFU. Readers will learn how to locate their octothorpe and how Stephen Baldwin, Paul Teutul and others waste time on the telephone. The author, Michael N. Marcus, is known for mixing technology and humor. He is founder and president of AbleComm, Inc. (the telecom department store), and has personally installed hundreds of phone systems, and designed and developed several popular and innovative telecommunications products. He's also a journalist who has written for many magazines and newspapers. This is his fourth book about communications equipment and is an abridged version of his 396-page Phone Systems & Phones for Small Business & Home.