Telecommunication Evolutionary Timeline

Annamalai Maheswaran (maheswaran.nct@gmail.com)

What Is Telecommunication?

Telecommunication is communication over a distance

Communication involves exchange of information Face to face communication is not telecommunication

Telecommunication network is interconnection of network elements to facilitate exchange of information

Information could be voice, data, images, video, .. Information flow simplex, broadcast, duplex ..

Telecommunication is a catalyst for economic activity

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Some Important Milestones

Year 1791 Event Demonstration of visual telegraph system

1820-40 Early experiments for electric telegraphy 1840 1844 1851 1854 Morse obtains US patent for electric telegraph First official Morse telegraphy message (What hath God wrought?) sent Morse has become the European standard US has about 15000 miles telegraph lines

Belgian inventor discusses possibility of sending sound vibrations electrically 1857-66 Efforts to lay transatlantic undersea telegraph line yield results

Some Important Milestones (Contd.)

Year 1876 Event Alexander Graham Bell files patent for improvements to telegraph ., including a speaking telegraph On March 3, 1876 Graham Bell is awarded US patent no 174,465 probably the most financially valuable patent ever issued Bell and associates form the Bell Telephone co

1876

1877 1878

First telephone exchanges installed First telephone is installed at White House 1879-98 More than 68 patents for automatic switching systems are offered to Bell Bell continues to use manual exchanges

Some Important Milestones (Contd.)

Year 1899 Event Alcon Strowger patents an automatic telephone system a historic event

1900-10 Continuous expansion of telephone systems worldwide 1911-11 In United Kingdom, GPO takes over most of the telephone companies and refuses to grant new licenses Other countries follow this practice results in state monopoly over telephony 1925 Bell Laboratories opened to pursue research in telecommunication related field 1929 47% US households have telephones

Some Important Milestones (Contd.)

Year Event 1939-45 World war II stimulates significant technology developments like radar, microwave 1944 Bell controls 83% of US telephone lines It is worlds largest firm with $ 5 billion assets

1948

Bell Laboratories announces the discovery of greatest invention of 20th century Transistor 1950-60 Bell company comes under severe competition
1965 First commercial exchange with computer control commissioned 1970-80 Corning Glass develops fiber optic cable Corporate usage of telephone lines encourages development of PBX, modems

Some Important Milestones (Contd.)

Year 1976 1978 1981 1982 Event Launch of Comstar communication satellite Bell launches first US cellular system with 2000 users connected to car telephone system Launch of Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) System Agreement to split Bell Systems reached called Divestiture 11 European nations agree to develop a common standard for mobile communication (this standard will go on to become GSM) AT&T (Bell systems) has revenue of $63 billion and assets worth $150 billion
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1983

Some Important Milestones (Contd.)

Year
1984 Late 1970s - early 90s 1980 onwards

Event
1982 agreement is legal with local operations of AT&T taken over by 7 baby Bellls Efforts to develop a broadband network ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) for supporting different services launched Revolution in data communication speeds Voice band (0.3 3.4 kHz) modem speeds increase from 300 bps to 56 kbps Digital Subscriber Loop speeds increase from 144 kbps to greater than 2048 kbps
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Some Important Milestones (Contd.)

Year 1984 Event 1982 agreement is legal with local operations of AT&T taken over by 7 baby Bellls

Late 1970s Efforts to develop a broadband network ISDN - early 90s (Integrated Services Digital Network) for supporting different services launched 1980 Revolution in data communication speeds onwards Voice band (0.3 3.4 kHz) modem speeds increase from 300 bps to 56 kbps Digital Subscriber Loop speeds increase from 144 kbps to greater than 2048 kbps
1991 Launch of first GSM network GSM standard will capture 80 % of future market
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Some Important Milestones (Contd.)

Year
1990s onwards

Event
Popularity of internet and mobile communication changes communication landscape completely

2000 onwards 2001 onwards

2009
2010 onwards

Introduction of 3G services
Asia leads growth of mobile communication Africa also does catch up later 4 billion mobile phones in usage compared to worlds population of 6 billion
3G and 4G networks deliver high quality video and TV through mobile Mobile revolution is expected to penetrate into everyday life

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