Telecommunication

– the Technological Passion of Every Household

1 Introduction

Communication ties together the parts of a society just as the nervous system ties together the parts of
an individual. From earliest times, when the only form of communication was speech, to the present,
when electronic signals carry information instantly to practically any point on Earth, communication
has been the way people have organized their cooperative activities.

Today it is possible to communicate with most countries by telephone cable, or by satellite or

microwave link, with over 100,000 simultaneous conversations and several television channels being
carried by the latest satellites. Integrated-Services Digital Network (ISDN) makes videophones and
high-quality fax possible. The Cell Phones dominates every household and become part of the
livelihood. These are the wonderful results taken out of the technological advancements happened in
the communication industry and resulted in spreading to the root level people of the world society.

2 Communication Medium
In the modern world there are two main types of communications media. One type consists of the mass
media--such as television, radio, newspapers, and magazines--in which organizations send messages to
a large number of people. The other type consists of direct, point-to-point communications--telephone,
telegraph, data transmission, and postal service. Of these, the electronic media (all but the postal
service) are termed telecommunications. I.e. Telecommunications - communications over a distance,
generally by electronic means.

3 Evolution of Telecommunication

3.1 First Generation Telecommunication

Telecommunication first came into existence with the development of the telegraph in the
1830s and 1840s. For the first time, news and information could be transmitted great
distances almost instantaneously. The invention of the telephone in 1876 by Alexander
Graham Bell fundamentally transformed telecommunications. The telephone system assumed
its modern form with the development of dial phoning and its spread during the middle
decades of the 20th century.

The first mechanical telecommunications systems were the semaphore and heliograph (using
flashes of sunlight), invented in the mid-19th century, but the forerunner of the present
telecommunications age was the electric telegraph. The earliest practicable telegraph
instrument was invented by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in Britain 1837 and used
by railway companies. In the USA, Samuel Morse invented a signaling code, Morse code,
which is still used, and a recording telegraph, first used commercially between England and
France 1851. Following German physicist Heinrich Hertz's discoveries using electromagnetic
waves, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi pioneered a 'wireless' telegraph, ancestor of the
radio. He established wireless communication between England and France 1899 and across
the Atlantic 1901. The modern telegraph uses teleprinters to send coded messages along
telecommunications lines. Telegraphs are keyboard-operated machines that transmit a five-
unit Baudot code. The receiving teleprinter automatically prints the received message.

3.2 Second Generation Telecommunication

The drawback to long-distance voice communication via microwave radio transmission is that
the transmissions follow a straight line from tower to tower, so that over the sea the system
becomes impracticable. A solution was put forward 1945 by the science-fiction writer Arthur C
Clarke, when he proposed a system of communications satellites in an orbit 35,900
km/22,300 mi above the equator, where they would circle the Earth in exactly 24 hours, and
thus appear fixed in the sky. Such a system is now in operation internationally, by Intelsat.
The satellites are called geostationary satellites (syncoms). The first to be successfully
launched, by Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, was Syncom 2 in July 1963. Many such
satellites are now in use, concentrated over heavy traffic areas such as the Atlantic, Indian,
and Pacific oceans. Telegraphy, telephony, and television transmissions are carried
simultaneously by high-frequency radio waves. They are beamed to the satellites from large
dish antennae or Earth stations, which connect with international networks. Recent advances
include the use of fibre-optic cables consisting of fine glass fibres for telephone lines instead
of the usual copper cables. The telecommunications signals are transmitted along the fibres
on pulses of laser light.
3.3 Third Generation Telecommunication

After 1975, however, a new transformation of telecommunications began. The technology

used to carry information changed radically. At the same time ordinary telephone and
telegraph traffic was enormously supplemented by huge masses of computer data, as millions
of computers were tied together into global networks. The world's first large-scale center of
ISDN began operating in Japan 1988.

4 Mode of Communication

In most cases telecommunications systems transmit information by wire, radio, or space

satellite. Wire transmission involves sending electrical signals over various types of wire lines
such as open wire, multi-pair cable, and coaxial cable. These lines can be used to transmit
voice frequencies, telegraph messages, computer-processed data, and television programs.
Another somewhat related transmission medium that has come into increasingly wider use,
especially in telephone communications, is a type of cable composed of optical fibers. Here
electrical signals converted to light signals by a laser-driven transmitter carry both speech and
data over bundles of thin glass or plastic filaments.

Radio communications systems transmit electronic signals in relatively narrow frequency

bands through the air. They include radio navigation and both amateur and commercial
broadcasting. Commercial broadcasting consists of AM, FM, and TV broadcasting for general
public use. Satellite communications allow the exchange of television or telephone signals
between widely separated locations by means of microwaves--that is, very short radio waves
with wavelengths from 4 inches to 0.4 inch (10 centimeters to 1 centimeter) which correspond
to a frequency range of 3 to 30 giga hertz (GHz), or 3 to 30 billion cycles per second. Since
satellite systems do not require the construction of intermediate relay or repeater stations, as
do ground-based microwave systems, they can be put into service much more rapidly.

5 Types of Signals used in Telecommunication

5.1 Analogue

It is the signal in the communication system changing continuously; by contrast a digital

quantity or device varies in series of distinct steps. For example, an analogue clock measures
time by means of a continuous movement of hands around a dial, whereas a digital clock
measures time with a numerical display that changes in a series of discrete steps. Most
computers are digital devices. Therefore, any signals and data from a analogue device must
be passed through a suitable analogue-to-digital converter before they can be received and
processed by computer. Similarly, output signals from digital computers must be passed
through a digital-to-analogue converter before, they can be received by an analogue device.

5.2 Digital

In electronics and computing, a term meaning 'coded as numbers' is know as digital. A digital
system uses two-state, either on/off or high/low voltage pulses, to encode, receive, and
transmit information. A digital display shows discrete values as numbers (as opposed to an
analogue signal, such as the continuous sweep of a pointer on a dial). Digital electronics is
the technology that underlies digital techniques. Low-power, miniature, integrated circuits
(chips) provide the means for the coding, storage, transmission, processing, and
reconstruction of information of all kinds.

5.3 Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

It is internationally developed telecommunications system for sending signals in digital format

along optical fibers and coaxial cable. It involves converting the 'local loop' - the link between
the user's telephone and the digital telephone exchange - from an analogue system into a
digital system, thereby greatly increasing the amount of information that can be carried. The
first large-scale use of ISDN began in Japan 1988. ISDN is a system that transmits voice and
image data on a single transmission line by changing them into digital signals. The chief
method of relaying long-distance calls on land is microwave radio transmission.

ISDN has advantages in higher voice quality, better-quality faxes, and the possibility of data
transfer between computers faster than current modems. With ISDN's Basic Rate Access, a
multiplexer divides one voice telephone line into three channels: two B bands and a D band.
Each B band offers 64 kilobits per second and can carry one voice conversation or 50
simultaneous data calls at 1,200 bits per second. The D band is a data-signaling channel
operating at 16 kilobits per second. With Primary Rate Access, ISDN provides 30 B channels.

5.4 Cellular Phone

Mobile Radio Telephone, one of a network connected to the telephone system by a computer-
controlled communication system. Service areas are divided into small 'cells', about 5 km/3 mi
across, each with a separate low-power transmitter. The cellular system allows the use of the
same set of frequencies with the minimum risk of interference. Nevertheless, in crowded city
areas, cells can become overloaded. This has led to a move away from analogue
transmissions to digital methods that allow more calls to be made within a limited frequency
range.

6 Telecommunication System

6.1 Modern Telecommunication System

Modern telecommunications networks thus not only send the traditional voice
communications of telephones and the printed messages of telegraphs and telexes, they also
carry images--the still images of facsimile machines or the moving images of video--television
transmissions used in videoconferences in which the participants can see as well as hear
each other. Additionally they carry encoded data ranging from the business accounts of a
multinational corporation to medical data relayed for analysis by physicians thousands of
miles from a patient.

6.2 Communication System as Added Services

During the late 1970s and 1980s a number of new telecommunications services came into
existence that transmitted information in forms other than voice or printed material.
Videoconferencing, for example, became increasingly popular with businesses. In a
videoconference participants gather in specially equipped rooms in different places--often in
different cities. The rooms have microphones and a number of television cameras and
screens. Voice signals and images from the room in which a person is speaking are
transmitted over high-capacity links to all the other rooms in the other places. Thus all
participants can both hear and see the speaker and, in most such systems, see projected on
a screen whatever charts or diagrams the speaker is using. In videoconferencing, as in all the
related services, signals are converted to digital form before being transmitted. In addition,
coding patterns are used to compress the amount of data sent. For example, instead of
sending a signal for each part of a given image, a signal is sent only when an image changes
in some way.

Another new service was videotex. Here a user can send requests for specific types of
information over a telephone, generally by pushing buttons, and the information, transmitted
over telephone or cable television lines, can be displayed on a television receiver equipped
with a special decoder. A most important service, one that expanded rapidly from the 1960s,
was data transmission, which links computers directly with other computers locally or
worldwide through a telecommunications network. This can be done in many different ways.
The simplest method is to attach individual computers to the telephone network through
devices called modems. Modems translate data from a computer into a code that is carried by
the telephone link to other computers with their own modems. The Internet, an international
network of millions of computers, offers bulletin boards, electronic-mail systems, file transfer,
and other on-line services.

6.3 Application of Modern Day Communication System

In more sophisticated computer networks, dedicated computers--that is, computers

programmed to carry out only one or a limited number of functions--are used for switching
messages. They allow messages from one computer to be broadcast to all others
simultaneously. Such systems also allow for data to be stored within the network for
forwarding at a later time. Multinational corporations--especially major banks, credit
corporations, and airlines--depend upon such systems. In all cases the means of data
transmission are the same as those used in the rest of the telecommunications systems.
Microwave links, satellite communications, and fiber optics carry such data transfers.

Data, however, generally require higher rates of transmission. Special connections must
frequently be made to the various computers to allow for sufficient carrying capacity. This
means that changes in a data transmission system often require costly rewiring and entirely
new, redesigned equipment in contrast to the telephone system in which new phone units can
be added relatively inexpensively.

7 Telecommunications Industry

7.1 Growth of Telecommunication Industry

Until the 1980s the world telecommunications system had a relatively simple administrative
structure. In the United States telephone service was supplied by a regulated monopoly,
American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T). Telegraph service was provided mainly by the
Western Union Corporation. In almost all other countries both services were the monopolies
of government agencies known as PTTs (for Post, Telephone, and Telegraph). In later days,
many new technologies emerged and they brought continuing changes in the providers of
telecommunications. Private companies such as Comsat in the United States were organized
to provide satellite communications links within the country. An international organization
called Intelsat, which is jointly owned by the various PTTs and private communications
companies, furnished the global links in the satellite telecommunications networks.

7.2 Revolution in Telecommunication and WTO

The United States spearheaded a 1997 agreement among 67 nations of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) that would open telecommunication markets in those countries to free
competition. Designed to end state monopolies over national telecommunications, the
agreement was applauded by officials from the nations involved as a measure that would
drastically cut the costs of global telecommunications services. It was believed that the
agreement would save the countries involved more than $1 trillion by the year 2010. The
agreement was hailed by observers as the most significant legislation negotiated by the two-
year-old World Trade Organization. According to the agreement, the WTO would become the
arbitrator in any disputes between member nations and international corporations, in order to
ensure that the elimination of market barriers was conducted uniformly. Critics, however,
questioned whether the WTO, which relied primarily on the goodwill of the member nations
and the threat of economic penalties against non-cooperating members, held enough
authority or power to mediate effectively in the event of serious international disputes.

8 Conclusion

India too witnessed the technological advancement of telecommunication, happened else

where in the world during end of the 20th Century. In India, the growth of telecommunication
structure is multi-folded and today every nook and corner of the country enjoys all the facility
of the telecommunication. The tele-density rate is growing high day-by-day. Being the
telecommunication industry as one of the important basic infrastructure, the consistent effort
put-in by the Governments resulted in making India as one of the leading country in the world.
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