• July 16, 2022

History of the telephone, from Bell to VoIP and beyond

Everyone knows the story of Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone.
There is the story of Bell’s first words, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see
you,” that’s indelibly imprinted on our brains from childhood. Yet what some
I don’t know is that the phone was developed in a similar way simultaneously
by Elisha Gray, who lost the patent battle by only a few hours in 1876.
Bell was successful mainly because he understood not only electricity and
the operation of the telegraph, but he had a profound knowledge of acoustics,
with which most inventors were not so familiar. As he focuses on the
mechanically, they were not taking into account the unique qualities of sound that
made voice transmission much more complex than simple mouse clicks.
Telegraph. With a background in music and acoustics, Bell could address these
problems more easily.
The chance that happens plays a role in acceptance.
The phone may not have gained such wide acceptance if, as if it were
Coincidentally, the Centennial Exposition had not been scheduled in Philadelphia for
just a few months later. Hidden on a small table in a dark corner, Bell
didn’t expect to attract much attention until he caught the attention of the Emperor
Dom Pedro de Alcantara from Brazil, who was amazed by the invention. Immediately,
all the scientists present clamored to study the new invention.
At first, phones were seen as just another fad for entertainment.
purposes than trade, until newspapers and banks reluctantly began using them
to transmit information quickly under free telephone facilities. Tea
the publicity of this made them immediately more popular and soon telephone exchanges
they settled in most major cities.
In the 1880s, metallic circuits were developed that allowed long distances.
calls, which grew in popularity slowly due to cost. Later, in the
1890, this was superseded by the development of the party line so that families,
especially in rural areas, it could split the cost of a line.
Direct dialing overcomes carrier interference
Until 1891, calls were made by exchange operators, but this was done
by a Kansas City man who invented the direct dial system because
he was paranoid enough to think the operators were forwarding his business calls
to competitors. He was an undertaker.
In 1927 the first transatlantic radio call was made. during both
World Wars, telephone advances grew by leaps and bounds due to the strong
Department of Defense spending. Innovations resulting from the war.
The experiments included Bell Telephone’s first mobile phone system, which
moving vehicles connected to landlines via radio. Surprisingly, this was like
in early 1946, a year that also saw the development of coaxial cables for major
improvements in transmission with less interference.
In the 1960s, telephones were such a part of the landscape that Bell
The phone could no longer continue to use the alphanumeric codes for the phone.
exchanges (remember using numbers like Normandy-7610?) and changed to longer,
all numeric numbers. At the same time, transatlantic cables were being laid to
accommodates the growing demand for intercontinental telephone communications.

One of the most important changes in the history of the telephone was the launch of the
first telephone satellite in July 1962. TelStar was a joint venture between
Bell and NASA and revolutionized telephone communications like nothing that had
come earlier Satellites in geosynchronous orbit could now be used for a long time
distance calls without the need to lay endless cable lines and eliminated
with the problem of frequent cable damage and repair.
Fiber optics move sound at the speed of light
Fiber optic cables were first used for telephone transmission in 1977, when
both GTE and AT&T installed fiber optic lines in Chicago and Boston. For him
mid-1980s, fiber optic cable was the preferred method of telephony
transmission, as it could carry a much higher volume of calls with much less
interference. Since it also carries information faster and farther and resists
lightning strikes, the advantages soon became apparent to the computer and other
industries too.
When the United States government deregulated telephone service, AT&T, the
telephone communications giant, was immediately inundated by competition from
MCI, Sprint and hundreds of smaller local businesses and fiber optic lines coming soon
were winding across the country, falling alongside natural rights-of-way
such as gas lines and railways. Phone costs down and a new phone
The service revolution had begun.
Mobile phones take the next step forward
In 1973, Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola Corporation did what was probably the
first cell phone call on a portable phone called the Dyna-Tac. After
successful trial, took him to New York to present the technology to the
audience. By 1977, the cell phone became public, but these early models were
cumbersome and generally used by those who were used to keeping in touch by
two way radio They were by no means considered something that everyone should
have or even want. They were initially considered a replacement for mobile
existing phones. The difference with the cell phone was the use of small
“cells” for service range in order to increase the capacity of answered calls,
dramatically increasing the number of calls that can be made by
mobile/cell phone at a time in one area.
The first cellular services used analog technology operating at 800 Megahertz.
in a continuous wave. Over time, the power needs of callers increased and the
Industry standard moved to more reliable 1850 MHz with PCS. In 1988, the
The Cellular Technology Industry Association was formed to develop guidelines for
cellular service providers and direct developments and improvements in the cellular network
telephone industry There are now more than 60 million cell phone customers,
a staggering number for a service that has been commercially available for only
thirty years.
Next stop, digital!
While most users still have analog cell phones, the new frontier
it’s definitely digital. Instead of using a continuous wavelength to
transmission, digital cuts the wave into discrete bytes of information and
it sends them in “pulses” of data. The advantage of this is that digital signals tend to
to be safer when transmitting than analog. It is also a more efficient use.
of bandwidth and provides clearer, cleaner sound quality. If you stream video
clips or photos (as with the new video or picture cell phones) digital is much
faster, and it will be the undisputed choice when you are integrating the cell phone
and Internet.
There is a caveat; however, on that digital it currently broadcasts through three
different technologies. This can lead to some coverage issues. If you are
in a TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) system and traveling in an area that
has digital coverage that is CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), you can run
in trouble
The answer for now is combined analog-digital technology that vendors
they are everything This offers the great coverage of analog when needed and the great
speed and quality of PCS/digital.
The conference call arrives on the scene
Arguably the first real “conference call” was the party
established lines in the early years of telephone use, although at that time the
The advantages of a shared line for multiple users were not realized, except as a way of
save money. In fact, the fact that several people in different places could
answering and talking on the line at the same time was considered a nuisance and
actively discouraged as “eavesdropping”.
When group lines were removed, the idea of ​​multiple conversations faded away.
forgotten until companies started looking for ways to conduct meetings over the phone
to save travel costs and unite remote teams. Tea
the concept was revised with new parameters; this time the restrictions had to be
instead, and the lines had to be open only when needed and wanted.
Soon companies from all over the world offered to coordinate conferences
calls for companies based on flat rates, monthly fees or based on calls
volume, with a trained operator who establishes connections between each participant
on a dedicated line so groups of up to ten can talk simultaneously. Their
wholesale long-distance rates allowed them to pass the savings on to their customers.

Phone makers such as Polycom, AT&T, and Panasonic also jumped on the bandwagon.
car, the development of office telephone systems that allowed users to dial a
customer, put it on hold, then call a third party and connect all three
callers in a conversation.
However, the Internet soon brought competition to audio conferencing and
cost of long distance telephone calls. Even with lower rates based on volume
purchases and group rates, Internet telephony is gaining ground over traditional
audio conference calls because it’s so much cheaper.
VoIP, Internet and the eventual disappearance of traditional telephony
conference
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) soon became popular for the telephone.
communications because it avoids standard telephone toll charges
Dial-up Internet connections provided near “call quality” voice
communications, and with broadband connections the highest data throughput
allowed businesses to use VoIP in conjunction with other Internet services such as
exchange of data and videoconferences. With the money saved using VoIP, it seems
It is obvious that the use of analog telephone lines for conference calls will soon be a
thing of the past
Most VoIP audio conferencing technologies give you the ability to network
multiple groups or parties from different geographical locations, so it is
easy to hold an international sales staff meeting. web conferencing solutions
Using VoIP from companies like Voxwire, TTCGlobalTalk, and VoiceCafe can
Provide nearly unlimited conference room seating for a meeting, limited only by
the bandwidth of the VoIP server.
As the Internet becomes a standard part of any set of office equipment,
analog phone services, audio conferencing and your equipment soon
become obsolete. Audio conferences will increasingly take place on the Internet
using VoIP-based web conferencing services that offer powerful collaboration
services that go beyond simple voice communications. to make calls,
digital phone services like Vonage and Packet8 that implement VoIP over
Broadband connections will intervene to offer more complete and less expensive services.
calling options to meet the needs of individuals and businesses entering the
future.
This article on “The history of the telephone” reprinted with
permission.

Copyright © 2004-2005 Evaluateek Publishing.

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