A Brief History of Telecommunications Telecommunication is a term coming from Greek and meaning communic ation at distance through signals

of varied nature coming from a transmitter to a receiver. In order to achieve effective communication, the choice of a proper mean of transport for the signal has played (and still plays) a fundamental role. Telecommunication is the transmission of information, over significant distances, for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded drumbeats, lungblown horns, or sent by loud whistles, for example In the modern age of electricity and electronics, telecommunications now also includes the use of electrical devices such as telegraphs, telephones, and teletypes, the use of radio and microwave communications, as well as fiber optics and their associated electronics, plus the use of the orbiting satellites and the Internet.

In ancient times, the most common way of producing a signal would be through light (fires) and sound (drums and horns). However, those kinds communications were o insecure and certainly left room to improvement as they did not permit message encryption nor a fast transmission of information on a large scale. The first breakthrough into modern electrical telecommunications came with the push to fully develop the telegraph starting in the 1830s. The use of these electr ical means of communications exploded into use on all of the continents of the world during the 19th century, and these also connected the continents via cables

on the floors of the ocean. The use of the first three popular systems of electrical telecommunications, the telegraph, telephone and teletype, all required the use of conducting metal wires. The true jump in terms of quality came with the advent of electricity. Electromagnetic energy, in fact, is able to transport information in an extremely fast way (ideally to the speed of light), in a way that previously had no equals in terms of costs reliability. Therefore, we may say that the starting point of all modern telecommunications was the invention of the electric cell by Alessandro Volta (1800). It was shortly thereafter that the first experiments on more advanced communication system begun. In 1809, Thomas S. Sommering proposed a telegraphic system composed of a battery, 35 wires (one for each letter and number) and a group of sensors made of gold, which were submerged in a water tank: when a signal was passing from one of those wires, electrical current would split water molecules, and small oxygen bubbles would be visible near that sensor. Many other experiments were soon to follow: Wheatstone, Weber and Karl Friedrich Gauss tried to further develop Sommerings idea in a product that could be mass-distributed, but their efforts were without success. For the next step we would have to wait until 1843, the year in which Samuel Morse proposed a way to assign each letter and number to a ternary code (point, line, and space). This way turned out to be extre mely convenient and more affordable than Sommerings idea, especially in terms of reduced circuitry (you wouldnt need anymore a wire for each symbol). Meanwhile, technology b ecame advanced enough to find a way to convert those signals in audible (or sometimes graphic) signals. The combination of these two factors quickly determined the success of Morses symbol code, which we can still find used today. The system was further developed and improved in the following years by Hughes, Baudot, and Gray (1879), who theorized other possible codes (Grays code has still applications today in the ICT industry and in barcodes technology). However, the telegraph could still be used just by trained personal and in certain buildings like offices, so it could only be use d by a limited amount of people. Research of the time therefore took another direction and aimed at producing a m achine that could transmit sounds, rather than just signals. The first big step in this direction was the invention of transducers which could transform an acoustic signal into an electric one and vice versa (microphone and receiver) with acceptable information loss, in 1850. Seven years later, Antonio Meucci and Graham Bell independently managed to build a prototype of an early telephone (sound at distance) machine. Since

Meucci didnt have the money to patent his invention (the cost was $250 at the time), Bell managed to register it first. Both with telegraphs and telephones, the need for a distributed and reliable communication network soon became evident. Routing issues were first solved by means of human operators and circuit commutation: the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) was born. However, this system didnt guarantee the privacy and secrecy of conversations, and efforts towards the development of an automatic circuit commutation were made. In 1899, Almon Strowger invented an electro-mechanic device simply known as selector, which was directed by the electrical signals coming from the calling telephone device, achieved through selection based on geographical prefixes. Many other innovations were soon to come:
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In 1985, Guglielmo Marconi invented the wireless telegraph (radio); In 1920, valve amplifiers made their first appearance; In 1923, the television was invented; In 1947, the invention of transistors gave birth to the field of electronics; In 1958, the first integrated circuit was built; In 1969, the first microprocessor was invented.

With the last step, electronics becomes more than ever a fundamental part in the telecommunication world, at first in the transmission, and soon also in the field of circuit commutation. . A revolution in wireless telecommunications began in the first decade of the 20th century, with Guglielmo Marconi winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 for his pioneering developments in wireless radio communications. Other highly notable pioneering inventors and developers in the field of electrical and electronic telecommunications include Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse (telegraph), Alexander Graham Bell (telephone), Nikola Tesla, Edwin Armstrong, and Lee de Forest (radio), as well as John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth (television).

Modern telecommunication

In an analog telephone network, the caller is connected to the person he wants to talk to by switches at various telephone exchanges. The switches form an electrical connection between the two users and the setting of these switches is determined electronically when the caller dials the number. Once the connection is made, the caller's voice is transformed to an electrical signal using a small microphone in the caller's handset. This electrical signal is then sent through the network to the user at the other end where it is transformed back into sound by a small speaker in that person's handset. There is a separate electrical connection that works in reverse, allowing the users to converse. [45][46] The fixed-line telephones in most residential homes are analog that is, the speaker's voice directly determines the signal's voltage. Although short-distance calls may be handled from end-to-end as analog signals, increasingly telephone service providers are transparently converting the signals to digital for transmission before converting them back to analog for reception. The advantage of this is that digitized voice data can travel side-by-side with data from the Internet and can be perfectly reproduced in long distance communication (as opposed to analog signals that are inevitably impacted by noise). Mobile phones have had a significant impact on telephone networks. Mobile phone subscriptions now outnumber fixed-line subscriptions in many markets. Sales of mobile phones in 2005 totalled 816.6 mill ion with that figure being almost equally shared amongst the markets of Asia/Pacific (204 m), Western Europe (164 m), CEMEA (Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa) (153.5 m), North America (148 m) and Latin America (102 m). In terms of new subscriptions over the five years from 1999, Africa has outpaced other markets with 58.2% growth. Increasingly these phones are being serviced by systems where the voice content is transmitted digitally such as GSM or W-CDMA with many markets choosing to depreciate analog systems such as AMPS.

There have also been dramatic changes in telephone communication behind the scenes. Starting with the operation of TAT-8 in 1988, the 1990s saw the widespread adoption of systems based on optic fibres. The benefit of communicating with optic fibers is that they offer a drastic increase in data capacity. TAT-8 itself was able to carry 10 times as many telephone calls as the last copper cable laid at that time and today's optic fibre cables are able to carry 25 times as many tel ephone calls as TAT-8. This increase in data capacity is due to several factors: First, optic fibres are physically much smaller than competing technologies. Second, they do not suffer from crosstalk which means several hundred of them can be easily bundled together in a single cable. Lastly, improvements in multiplexing have led to an exponenti al growth in the data capacity of a single fibre. Assisting communication across many modern optic fibre networks is a protocol known as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). The ATM protocol allows for the side-by-side data transmission mentioned in the second paragraph. It is suitable for public telephone networks because it establishes a pathway for data through the network and associates a traffic contract with that pathway. The traffic contract is essentially an agreement between the client and the network about how the network is to handle the data; if the network cannot meet the conditions of the traffic contract it does not accept the connection. This is important because telephone calls can negotiate a contract so as to guarantee themselves a constant bit rate, something that will ensure a caller's voice is not delayed in parts or cut-off completely. There are competitors to ATM, such as Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), that perform a similar task and are expected to supplant ATM in the future

THE INDIAN TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world. The industry has witnessed consistent growth during the last year on the back of rollout of newer circles by operators, successful auction of thirdgeneration (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum, network rollout in semi-rural areas and increased focus on the value added services (VAS) market. Meanwhile, Indian Global System of Mobile Communication (GSM) telecom operators added 14.69 million new subscribers in February 2011, taki ng the allIndia GSM cellular subscriber base to 555.06 million, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). The GSM subscriber base stood at 540.37 million at the end of January 2011.

Telecom companies incorporate heavy costs on energy consumption. Besides being expensive, the resources used tax the environment heavily. In the wake of these facts, the ETIG Knowledge Forum in association with Global Group has attempted to articulate the road map to green telecom in India. Constantly ev olving professional grade energy management products are leading the revolution and R&D has helped bring costs down. For instance, in the past, to deploy 2G, 3G, 4G technology, one would need separate base-stations. But today, a single base-station puts all the technology in one place such that one needs to simply change the radio configuration. Companies are on a continuous look-out for alternatives like solar panels and other types of sources of energy and their combinations to achieve costeffectiveness. History of Indian Telecommunications History of Indian Telecommunications started in 1851 when the first operational land lines were laid by the government near Calcutta (seat of British power). Telephone services were introduced in India in 1881. In 1 883 telephone services were merged with the postal system. Indian Radio Telegraph Company (IRT) was formed in 1923. After independence in 1947, all the foreign telecommunic ation companies were nationalized to form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a monopoly run by the government's Ministry of Communications. Telecom sector was considered as a strategic service and the government considered it best to bring under state's control. The first wind of reforms in telecommunications sector began to flow in 1980s when the private sector was allowed in telecommunications equipment manufa cturing. In 1985, Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was established. It was an exclusive provider of domestic and long-distance service that would be its own regulator (separate from the postal system). In 1986, two wholly governmentowned companies were created: the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) for international telecommunications and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) for service in metropolitan areas. In 1990s, telecommunications sector benefited from the general opening up of the economy. Also, examples of telecom revolution in many other countries, which resulted in better quality of service and lower tariffs, led Indian policy makers to initiate a change process finally resulting in opening up of telecom services sector for the private sector. National Telecom Policy (NTP) 1994 was the first attempt to give a comprehensive roadmap for the Indian telecommunications sector. In 1997, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was created. TRAI was formed to act as a regulator to facilitate the growth of the telecom se ctor. New National Telecom Policy was adopted in 1999 and cellular services were

also launched in the same year. Social impact Telecommunication has played a significant role in social relationships. Nevertheless devices like the telephone system were originally advertised with an emphasis on the practical dimensions of the device (such as the ability to conduct business or order home services) as opposed to the social dimensions. It was not until the late 1920s and 1930s that the social dimensions of the device became a prom inent theme in telephone advertisements. New promotions started appealing to consumers' emotions, stressing the importance of social conversations and staying connected to family and friends. Since then the role that telecommunications has played in social relations has b ecome increasingly important. In recent years, the popularity of social networking sites has increased dramatically. These sites allow users to communicate with each other as well as post photographs, events and profiles for others to see. The profiles can list a person's age, interests, sexual preference and relationship status. In this way, these sites can play important role in everything from organising social engagements to courtship. Prior to social networking sites, technologies like short message service(SMS) and the telephone also had a significant impact on social interactions. In 2000, market research group Ipsos MORI reported that 81% of 15 to 24 year-old SMS users in the United Kingdom had used the service to coordinate social arrangements and 42% to flirt.