Portal:Telecommunication
The Telecommunication Portal
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that feasible with the human voice, but with a similar scale of expediency; thus, slow systems (such as postal mail) are excluded from the field.
The transmission media in telecommunication have evolved through numerous stages of technology, from beacons and other visual signals (such as smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs), to electrical cable and electromagnetic radiation, including light. Such transmission paths are often divided into communication channels, which afford the advantages of multiplexing multiple concurrent communication sessions. Telecommunication is often used in its plural form.
Other examples of pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages, such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. 20th- and 21st-century technologies for long-distance communication usually involve electrical and electromagnetic technologies, such as telegraph, telephone, television and teleprinter, networks, radio, microwave transmission, optical fiber, and communications satellites.
A revolution in wireless communication began in the first decade of the 20th century with the pioneering developments in radio communications by Guglielmo Marconi, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909, and other notable pioneering inventors and developers in the field of electrical and electronic telecommunications. These included Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse (inventors of the telegraph), Antonio Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell (some of the inventors and developers of the telephone, see Invention of the telephone), Edwin Armstrong and Lee de Forest (inventors of radio), as well as Vladimir K. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth (some of the inventors of television).
According to Article 1.3 of the Radio Regulations (RR), telecommunication is defined as « Any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems.» This definition is identical to those contained in the Annex to the Constitution and Convention of the International Telecommunication Union (Geneva, 1992).
The early telecommunication networks were created with copper wires as the physical medium for signal transmission. For many years, these networks were used for basic phone services, namely voice and telegrams. Since the mid-1990s, as the internet has grown in popularity, voice has been gradually supplanted by data. This soon demonstrated the limitations of copper in data transmission, prompting the development of optics. (Full article...)
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The Tokyo Tower (東京タワー, Tōkyō tawā, officially called 日本電波塔 Nippon denpatō "Japan Radio Tower") is a communications and observation tower in the Shiba-koen district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 332.9 meters (1,092 ft), it is the second-tallest structure in Japan. The structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower that is painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations.
Built in 1958, the tower's main sources of income are tourism and antenna leasing. Over 150 million people have visited the tower. FootTown, a four-story building directly under the tower, houses museums, restaurants, and shops. Departing from there, guests can visit two observation decks. The two-story Main Deck (formerly known as the Main Observatory) is at 150 meters (490 ft), while the smaller Top Deck (formerly known as the "Special Observatory") reaches a height of 249.6 meters (819 ft). The names were changed following renovation of the top deck in 2018. The tower is repainted every five years, taking a year to complete the process. (Full article...)General images
AT&T Picturephone (Mod II) fully enclosed in its housing, control pad at bottom (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Electrical engineer/inventor Guglielmo Marconi with the spark-gap transmitter (right) and coherer receiver (left) he used in some of his first long distance radiotelegraphy transmissions during the 1890s. (from History of radio)
The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company (England, 1906) (from History of radio)
A replica of one of Claude Chappe's semaphore towers (optical telegraph) in Nalbach, Germany (from History of telecommunication)
The French Matra videophone (1970) (from History of videotelephony)
Charles Logwood broadcasting at station 2XG, New York City, circa November, 1916. (from History of broadcasting)
Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Lee DeForest broadcasting Columbia phonograph records on pioneering New York station 2XG,in 1916. (from History of broadcasting)
Modern Apple Iphone. This phone is considered a smartphone (from History of the telephone)
A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Bell prototype telephone stamp(from History of the telephone)
Centennial Issue of 1976
Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right). (from History of television)
Around 1920, radio broadcasting started to get popular. A group of women gathered around the radio at the time. (from History of radio)
1896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
1917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Caricature of Sir John Reith, by the artist, Wooding. (from History of broadcasting)
The British Broadcasting Corporation's landmark and iconic London headquarters, Broadcasting House, opened in 1932. At right is the 2005 eastern extension, the John Peel wing. (from History of broadcasting)
Broadcasting pioneer Frank Conrad in a 1921 portrait. (from History of broadcasting)
The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953-57). (from History of television)
Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
The first commercial AM Audion vacuum tube radio transmitter, built in 1914 by Lee De Forest who invented the Audion (triode) in 1906 (from History of radio)
Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
British Post Office engineers inspect Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy (radio) equipment in 1897. (from History of radio)
A Tandberg T3 high definition telepresence room in use circa 2008, 40 years after the introduction of Picturephone. (from History of videotelephony)
The 1969 AT&T Mod II Picturephone, the result of decades long R&D at a cost of over $500M. (from History of telecommunication)
DBS satellite dishes. (from History of television)
Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in a 1926 silent film. Shows Bell's first telephone transmitter (microphone), invented 1876 and first displayed at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. (from History of the telephone)
Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1856-1894) discovered an important step in the process of radio development called the Hertzian waves. (from History of radio)
The master telephone patent, 174465, granted to Bell, March 7, 1876 (from History of telecommunication)
A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Typical low-cost webcam used with many personal computers (from History of videotelephony)
The Marconi Company was formed in England in 1910. The photo shows a typical early scene, from 1906, with Marconi employee Donald Manson at right. (from History of broadcasting)
Emil Voigt, founder of 2KY on behalf of the Labor Council of New South Wales. This photo was taken in earlier days when Voight was a prominent British athlete, and winner of the Gold Medal for the five mile race at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. (from History of broadcasting)
Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander using an Ericsson videophone to speak with Lennart Hyland, a popular TV show host (1969) (from History of videotelephony)
Julio Cervera Baviera (from History of radio)
Right side view, housing removed, one of its printed circuit boards exposed (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Artist's conception: 21st-century videotelephony imagined in the early 20th century (1910) (from History of videotelephony)
Stock telegraph ticker machine by Thomas Edison (from History of telecommunication)
Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
The Regency TR-1, which used Texas Instruments' NPN transistors, was the world's first commercially produced transistor radio in 1954. (from History of radio)
The "Kerbango Internet Radio" was the first stand-alone product that let users listen to Internet radio without a computer. (from History of broadcasting)
Code of letters and symbols for Chappe telegraph (Rees's Cyclopaedia) (from History of telecommunication)
Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Guglielmo Marconi. (from History of broadcasting)
Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
Reginald Fessenden, the father of radio broadcasting in the US. (from History of broadcasting)
In the 1920s, the United States government publication, "Construction and Operation of a Simple Homemade Radio Receiving Outfit", showed how almost any person handy with simple tools could a build an effective crystal radio receiver. (from History of radio)
The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation logo, first introduced in 1975 and based on the Lissajous curve. (from History of broadcasting)
"Fiction becomes fact": Imaginary "Edison" combination videophone-television, conceptualized by George du Maurier and published in Punch magazine. The drawing also depicts then-contemporary speaking tubes, used by the parents in the foreground and their daughter on the viewing display (1878). (from History of videotelephony)
"Doc" Herrold is shown at the microphone of KQW, early 1920s. (from History of broadcasting)
Naomi ("Joan") Melwit and Norman Banks at the 3KZ microphone, in the late 1930s. (from History of broadcasting)
"The Wireless Telephone", U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. (from History of radio)
The Kyocera VP-210 Visual Phone was the first commercial mobile videophone. The Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) phone was introduced in Japan (1999). (from History of videotelephony)
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879), the founder of electromagnetism theory (from History of radio)
An exposed view of the Picturephone's rear circuit board (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
Australian radio sets usually had the positions of radio stations marked on their dials. The illustration is a dial from a transistorised, mains-operated Calstan radio, circa 1960s. (Click image for a high resolution view, with readable callsigns.) (from History of broadcasting)
Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available. (from History of television)
AT&T magazine advertisement announcing commercial launch of Picturephone service. (from History of videotelephony)
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Selected biography -
Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow (22 August 1860 – 24 August 1940) was a German technician and inventor. He invented the Nipkow disk, which laid the foundation of television, since his disk was a fundamental component in the first televisions. Hundreds of stations experimented with television broadcasting using his disk in the 1920s and 1930s, until it was superseded by all-electronic systems in the 1940s.
The first public television station in the world, Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow, was named in his honour. (Full article...)Did you know?
...that Intelsat 1, known as Early Bird, launched in 1965, provided either 240 voice circuits or one two-way television channel between the United States and Europe.
...that the first telephone message was transmitted in 1876 from one room in Alexander Graham Bell’s house to another.
...that in 1880 France rewarded Bell the Volta Prize, worth 50,000 francs, for his invention.
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