Portal:Telecommunication
The Telecommunication Portal
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form, is the transmission of information with an immediacy comparable to face-to-face communication. As such, slow communications technologies like postal mail and pneumatic tubes are excluded from the definition. Many transmission media have been used for telecommunications throughout history, from smoke signals, beacons, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs to wires and empty space made to carry electromagnetic signals. These paths of transmission may be divided into communication channels for multiplexing, allowing for a single medium to transmit several concurrent communication sessions. Several methods of long-distance communication before the modern era used sounds like coded drumbeats, the blowing of horns, and whistles. Long-distance technologies invented during the 20th and 21st centuries generally use electric power, and include the telegraph, telephone, television, and radio.
Early telecommunication networks used metal wires as the medium for transmitting signals. These networks were used for telegraphy and telephony for many decades. In the first decade of the 20th century, a revolution in wireless communication began with breakthroughs including those made in radio communications by Guglielmo Marconi, who won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics. Other early pioneers in electrical and electronic telecommunications include co-inventors of the telegraph Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse, numerous inventors and developers of the telephone including Antonio Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell, inventors of radio Edwin Armstrong and Lee de Forest, as well as inventors of television like Vladimir K. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth.
Since the 1960s, the proliferation of digital technologies has meant that voice communications have gradually been supplemented by data. The physical limitations of metallic media prompted the development of optical fibre. The Internet, a technology independent of any given medium, has provided global access to services for individual users and further reduced location and time limitations on communications. (Full article...)
Selected article -
India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phones) with over 1.1 billion subscribers as of December 2023. It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by multiple large-scale telecom operators and the ensuant hyper-competition between them. India has the world's second-largest Internet user-base with over 904 million broadband internet subscribers as of December 2023.
Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are the telephone, internet and television broadcast industries in the country which are involved in an ongoing process of developing into a next-generation network, increasingly employing an extensive array of modern network infrastructure such as digital telephone exchanges, network switching subsystems, media gateways and signaling gateways at the core, interconnected by a wide variety of transmission systems using optical fiber or microwave radio relay networks. The access network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly diversified with different copper-pair, optical fiber and wireless technologies. Satellite television, a relatively new broadcasting technology has attained significant popularity in the Television segment. The introduction of private FM has boosted radio broadcasting in India. Telecommunication in India has been greatly supported by the Indian National Satellite System system of the country, one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world. India possesses a diversified communications system, which links all parts of the country by telephone, Internet, radio, television and satellite. (Full article...)General images
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Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television) -
AT&T magazine advertisement announcing commercial launch of Picturephone service. (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) -
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone) -
Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right). (from History of television) -
The French Matra videophone (1970) (from History of videotelephony) -
Early experiment demonstrating refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897 (from History of radio) -
Lee DeForest broadcasting Columbia phonograph records on pioneering New York station 2XG, in 1916 (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) -
Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone) -
Around 1920, radio broadcasting started to get popular. The Brox Sisters, a popular singing group, gathered around the radio at the time. (from History of radio) -
"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) -
The 1969 AT&T Mod II Picturephone, the result of decades long R&D at a cost of over $500M. (from History of telecommunication) -
Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander using an Ericsson videophone to speak with Lennart Hyland, a popular TV show host (1969) (from History of videotelephony) -
Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone) -
A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone) -
Code of letters and symbols for Chappe telegraph (Rees's Cyclopaedia) (from History of telecommunication) -
Guglielmo Marconi (from History of broadcasting) -
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"Doc" Herrold is shown at the microphone of KQW, early 1920s. (from History of broadcasting) -
Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television) -
AT&T Picturephone (Mod II) fully enclosed in its housing, control pad at bottom (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
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Reginald Fessenden, the "father" of radio broadcasting in the US (from History of broadcasting) -
A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone) -
Oliver Lodge's 1894 lectures on Hertz demonstrated how to transmit and detect radio waves (from History of radio) -
Public television in France uses 819 line b&w high definition, from 1959 until 1983 (TF1). (from History of television) -
Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television) -
Charles Logwood broadcasting at station 2XG, New York City, circa November, 1916 (from History of broadcasting) -
Reginald Fessenden (around 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 Australian Broadcasting Corporation logo, first introduced in 1975 and based on the Lissajous curve (from History of broadcasting) -
The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television) -
The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television) -
Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone) -
Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone) -
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) -
Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company (England, 1906) (from History of radio)
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1917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone) -
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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) -
Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone) -
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Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone) -
Bell prototype telephone stamp(from History of the telephone)
Centennial Issue of 1976 -
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) -
1896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone) -
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) -
The "Kerbango Internet Radio" was the first stand-alone product that let users listen to Internet radio without a computer. (from History of broadcasting) -
British Post Office engineers inspect Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy (radio) equipment in 1897. (from History of radio) -
Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television) -
Naomi ("Joan") Melwit and Norman Banks at the 3KZ microphone, in the late 1930s (from History of broadcasting) -
An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television) -
Broadcasting pioneer Frank Conrad in a 1921 portrait (from History of broadcasting) -
Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone) -
Right side view, housing removed, one of its printed circuit boards exposed (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony) -
Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available. (from History of television) -
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) -
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1856–1894) proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation (from History of radio) -
An exposed view of the Picturephone's rear circuit board (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony) -
DBS satellite dishes. (from History of television) -
The master telephone patent, 174465, granted to Bell, March 7, 1876 (from History of telecommunication) -
Artist's conception: 21st-century videotelephony imagined in the early 20th century (1910) (from History of videotelephony) -
Antonio Meucci's telephone. (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) -
Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in a 1932 silent film. Shows Bell's second telephone transmitter (microphone), invented 1876 and first displayed at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. (from History of the telephone) -
Caricature of Sir John Reith, by Wooding (from History of broadcasting) -
Typical low-cost webcam used with many personal computers (from History of videotelephony) -
First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television) -
RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television) -
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) -
Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone) -
Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone) -
The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
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Selected biography -
Alexander Graham Bell (/ˈɡreɪ.əm/, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885.
Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf; profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. His research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices which eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone, on March 7, 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study. (Full article...)Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Angelito de Canal 13, the mascot of the Chilean television network Canal 13, was inspired by its creator's son?
- ... that Pierre Kaufmann helped install the first radio telescope in Brazil, which was later destroyed by cows?
- ... that the limited radio airplay of "Get Together" in the US spawned a petition, outrage, and conspiracy theories among Madonna fans?
- ... that although the Germans boasted that they captured British radio traffic with ease, the Wireless Set Number 10 was so secure that they never even knew of its existence?
- ... that one owner of Montana radio station KXGF went from owning a stake in a waterbed dealership to liquidating his assets in a span of six months?
- ... that Ernst Jacobi, known for portraying Gauleiter Löbsack in Volker Schlöndorff's film The Tin Drum, played more than 200 roles as a television actor?
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