The Telecommunication Portal
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electrical or electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of transmission may be divided into communication channels for multiplexing, allowing for a single medium to transmit several concurrent communication sessions. Long-distance technologies invented during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries generally use electric power, and include the electrical 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, Philipp Reis, Elisha Gray 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 -
The Submarine Telegraph Company was a British company which laid and operated submarine telegraph cables.
Jacob and John Watkins Brett formed the English Channel Submarine Telegraph Company to lay the first cable across the English Channel. An unarmoured cable with gutta-percha insulation was laid in 1850. The recently introduced gutta-percha was the first thermoplastic material available to cable makers and was resistant to seawater. This first unarmoured cable was a failure and was soon broken either by a French fishing boat or by abrasion on the rocks off the French coast. (Full article...)
General images
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Charles Logwood broadcasting at New York station 2XG, 1916 (from History of broadcasting) -
Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone) -
The "Kerbango Internet Radio" was the first stand-alone product that let users listen to Internet radio without a computer. (from History of broadcasting) -
The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television) -
DBS satellite dishes (from History of television) -
A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone) -
Innocenzo Manzetti considered the idea of a telephone in 1844 (from History of the telephone) -
Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone) -
Naomi ("Joan") Melwit and Norman Banks at the 3KZ microphone, in the late 1930s (from History of broadcasting) -
John Logie Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television) -
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, c. 1960s. (Click image for a high resolution view, with readable callsigns.) (from History of broadcasting) -
Guglielmo Marconi (from History of broadcasting) -
Oliver Lodge's 1894 lectures on Hertz demonstrated how to transmit and detect radio waves. (from History of radio) -
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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) -
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation logo, first introduced in 1975 and based on the Lissajous curve (from History of broadcasting) -
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) -
Tihanyi' Radioskop patent (1926) was recognized as Document of Universal Significance by the UNESCO (from History of television) -
Typical low-cost webcam used with many personal computers (from History of videotelephony) -
Portrait of John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, in 1925, founding director general of the BBC from 1922 to 1938 (from History of broadcasting) -
AT&T magazine advertisement announcing commercial launch of Picturephone service. (from History of videotelephony) -
Antonio Meucci, 1849, developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone) -
Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone) -
Screen idol Rudolph Valentino at the microphone of WSB in Atlanta, 1923 (from History of broadcasting) -
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) -
Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company (England, 1906) (from History of radio) -
British Post Office engineers inspect Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy (radio) equipment in 1897. (from History of radio) -
Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone) -
Reginald Fessenden (around 1906) (from History of radio) -
An exposed view of the Picturephone's rear circuit board (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony) -
The Regency TR-1, which used Texas Instruments' NPN transistors, was the world's first commercially produced transistor radio in 1954. Size: 3×5×1.25 inch (7.6×12.7×3.2 cm) (from History of radio) -
Early pioneers of radio science and technology in the United States, including Charles Steinmetz, David Sarnoff, Irving Langmuir, and Alfred Goldsmith in 1921, photographed next to the antenna feed wires of the New Brunswick Marconi Station, one of the first transatlantic radio links. The photo includes Albert Einstein as a visiting guest. (from History of radio) -
The earliest photograph of a television picture, showing the face of Oliver Hutchinson in June 1926. The television picture was projected using Baird's television camera. (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) -
An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television) -
First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television) -
Broadcasting pioneer Frank Conrad in a 1921 portrait (from History of broadcasting) -
Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television) -
Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone) -
An early experiment demonstrating the refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897 (from History of radio) -
"Doc" Herrold is shown at the microphone of KQW, c. 1925 (from History of broadcasting) -
Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television) -
"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 master telephone patent, 174465, granted to Bell, March 7, 1876 (from History of telecommunication) -
1917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone) -
Replica of the telettrofono at Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy, invented by Antonio Meucci and credited by several sources as the first 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) -
Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone) -
Code of letters and symbols for Chappe telegraph (Rees's Cyclopaedia) (from History of telecommunication) -
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)
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RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television) -
Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone) -
Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television) -
Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander using an Ericsson videophone to speak with Lennart Hyland, a popular TV show host (1969) (from History of videotelephony) -
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1856–1894) proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation. (from History of radio) -
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 build an effective crystal radio receiver. (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) -
Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television) -
Lee DeForest broadcasting Columbia phonograph records on New York station 2XG, 1916 (from History of broadcasting) -
The 1969 AT&T Mod II Picturephone, the result of decades long R&D at a cost of over $500M. (from History of telecommunication)
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1896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone) -
Bell prototype telephone stamp(from History of the telephone)
Centennial Issue of 1976 -
The French Matra videophone (1970) (from History of videotelephony) -
A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone) -
The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
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Artist's conception: 21st-century videotelephony imagined in the early 20th century (1910) (from History of videotelephony) -
Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone) -
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) -
Reconstruction of Aeneas Tacticus' hydraulic telegraph (4th c. B.C.) in Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, Athens, Greece. (from History of telecommunication) -
Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone) -
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Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone) -
A replica of one of Claude Chappe's semaphore towers (optical telegraph) in Nalbach, Germany (from History of telecommunication) -
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Right side view, housing removed, one of its printed circuit boards exposed (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony) -
The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television) -
Reginald Fessenden, the "father" of radio broadcasting in the U.S. (from History of broadcasting)
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Selected biography -
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, Morse, in his middle age, contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer and the namesake of Morse code in 1837 and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the World-Wide Navigational Warning Service divides the entire ocean into just 21 radio areas?
- ... that North Dakota state senator Merrill Piepkorn is also a musician, radio host, and public address announcer?
- ... that Episode 8055 of the Australian television soap opera Neighbours is the first episode in the show's history to star and be directed and written entirely by women?
- ... that Tachikawa Sumito made a hit cover in 1976 of a song that he first discovered when a housewife called into his radio show requesting to hear a version of it?
- ... that It Sticks Out Half a Mile is a radio sequel series to Dad's Army that follows three of the main characters in their attempts to renovate a seaside pier in post-war Britain?
- ... that Angeline Quinto has recorded songs for at least 35 films and television soundtracks in the Philippines?
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