History of Telecommunication

Telecommunications has come down from a long way, down hundred of years ago, slowly with advents. The history of telecommunication is an important part of the larger history of communication.

history of telecom

The history of telecommunication began with the use of smoke signals.  In the 1790s, the first fixed semaphore systems emerged in Europe; however it was not until the 1830s that electrical telecommunication systems started to appear.

A timeline of how telecom evolved over years is as below:

Visual, auditory and ancillary methods (non-electrical)

• Prehistoric: Fires, Beacons, Smoke signals, Communication drums, Horns
• 6th century BCE: Mail
• 5th century BCE: Pigeon post
• 4th century BCE: Hydraulic semaphores
• 1500 Korean hwacha net uses hwachas arrows to send mails throughout a town.
• 15th century CE: Maritime flag semaphores
• 1672: First experimental acoustic (mechanical) telephone
• 1790: Semaphore lines (optical telegraphs)
• 1867: Signal lamps
• 1877: Acoustic phonograph

Basic electrical signals

• 1838: Electrical telegraph. See: Telegraph history
• 1830s: Beginning of attempts to develop “wireless telegraphy”, systems using some form of ground, water, air or other media for conduction to eliminate the need for conducting wires
• 1858: First trans-Atlantic telegraph cable
• 1876: Telephone
• 1880: Telephony via light beam photo phones

Advanced electrical and electronic signals

• 1896: First practical wireless telegraphy systems based on Radio
• 1914: First North American transcontinental telephone calling
• 1927: Television
• 1927: First commercial radio-telephone service, U.K.–U.S.
• 1930: First experimental videophones
• 1934: First commercial radio-telephone service, U.S.–Japan
• 1936: World’s first public videophone network
• 1946: Limited capacity Mobile Telephone Service for automobiles
• 1956: Transatlantic telephone cable
• 1962: Commercial telecommunications satellite
• 1964: Fiber optical telecommunications
• 1965: First North American public videophone network
• 1969: Computer networking
• 1973: First modern-era mobile (cellular) phone
• 1979: INMARSAT ship-to-shore satellite communications
• 1981: First mobile (cellular) phone network
• 1982: SMTP email
• 1983: Internet
• 1998: Mobile satellite hand-held phones
• 2003: VoIP Internet Telephony