The prefix ‘tele’ means afar or far off.  Hence telecommunication is communication from afar, so the early visual and audible signals that were used before telecoms as we know them are as entitled to be referred to as ‘telecommunications’ as the telegraph and telephone.

The history of telecoms is full of more misconceptions and misunderstandings that practically any other area of scientific discovery. Here is the truth.

The Africans and America Natives used drums and smoke signals and both were likely the original telecoms. They were means of communicating from afar and each in its own way became very sophisticated methods of communicating to those versed in their use. Perhaps yodeling preceded them but there is no written evidence.

There was also other visual communication by semaphore, mirrors and flashing lights, but it was the audible signals that dominated telecommunications throughout the 19th and 20th centuries rather than the visual, in spite of television which was a one-way communications system only, and hence not relevant here.

Samuel Morse invented the telegraph and the coding system that went with it. This was in 1837.  The telegraph was no use without Morse code, but many people get this wrong in trivia quizzes and believe it was Marconi.  However, why should Samuel Morse invent a coding system for a communications system that had not yet been invented?  In fact, Marconi was heavily involved in the invention of the wireless method of communication, and it was Marconi that is credited invented the wireless telegraph, and later radio for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics with Karl Braun (inventor of the cathode ray tube).

However, a Scot, James Lindsay demonstrated wireless telegraphy in 1832 and in 1854 demonstrated it over a distance of two miles, but was never given the credit:  he did the same with arc welding and the electric light bulb long before Edison – another frustrated Scot!

After the wireless telegraph came the telephone, invented by another Scot, Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, although the first transatlantic telegraph cable had been laid in 1866. You could send a wire from London to New York before you could telephone your next door neighbor! After that, developments in telecommunications equipment progressed steadily, but not the science. Handsets and exchange systems improved, and Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) enabled the operator to be bypassed when making a call, and television was invented by yet another Scot along the way (John Logie Baird), but little was done to change the transmission of voice by wire.

In fact the first wireless two-way communications came through radio as previously mentioned with influence of Guglielmo Marconi, although telephony is now the flavour of the century.  The first patent for a wireless telephone was issued in 1908, by a Nathan B. Stubblefield, though this was not a true cellular phone. The first modern cell phone was launched in Japan by NTT, and we all know its history since then.

Cell phones are now the ultimate in telecommunication equipment, being used for all means of telecom, including internet communication, texting and emailing apart from just telephony.  VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) allows users to use their internet connection to make free telephone calls over the internet protocol and video phoning is now possible, although not the success that was first envisioned.

Telecommunication equipment has developed more in the past decade than in the past century, although the milestones were probably more significant then than now. The phones are easier to carry now though!

A Telecommunications Equipment Buying Guide.

There are so many products out there, and so many options, that it is very easy to pay for more than you could possibly use, and most do. It might sound great to have internet browsing capability but you will soon get through your £10 top-up.  You are cheaper surfing on your computer than your mobile, and even though it might seem cool, just remember:  on mobiles, cool costs. So:

CHOOSING MOBILE PHONES
1.  Unless you are a teenager that must have everything to avoid being a chav, decide what you need in your mobile phone and go for that. You might find that you will get features you don’t want, and if so you don’t have to use them!