Present State and Trends of Public Communications in the Fedearal Republic of Germany

The introduction gives an account of the historical development of telecommunications in Germany (Federal Republic of Germany), the legal status of the Deutsche Bundespost, its relationship with the German telecommunication industry, and the status of the broadcasting organizations. On the basis of the present state of the art, the future trends in switching and transmission as well as in cable and radio engineering are described. Of special weight are the new data and telephone switching systems and the requirements for future broad-band services. Research and development are concentrated on these projects, allowance having to be made for the present state of the networks in the Federal Republic of Germany.