Telecommunications technology includes anything used by humans to communicate information over a distance. The concept has been around since the earliest days of human history when smoke signals and drums were used to inform a person or groups of people about an event or situation. However, great advances since the late 1800s have brought the field of telecommunications into the modern age. In the telegraph, long distances could be traveled with information. More recent developments include the telephone, radio, television, fax machine, and computer, each with their own unique properties to benefit humanity’s exchange of information.
The telephone is a common telecommunications device.
For something to be considered a telecommunications technology, it needs to maintain three specific properties that define its actions. First, some sort of transmitter must match the information to a signal, such as a drummer hitting a specific combination of beats to represent an event. That signal must then be transmitted through some sort of medium, such as the echo caused by a valley the drummer is in. Third, a receiver captures the signal and converts it into information usable by the receiver. Like the drumbeat example, all modern forms of telecommunications, from mobile phones to Internet connections, use this same concept.
Telecommunications towers for radio and television.
One of the most common telecommunications devices is the telephone, an instrument that transfers voice information from one place to another. Two main types of phones are used in modern society: the analog landline phone and the satellite mobile phone. Landlines were first established as a telecommunications network in the late 19th century, using a complex system of cables stretched across the globe. Cellular technology was first implemented in the 1970s, using a network of satellites and radio towers. Fax machines, which use the landline network, also use the same method to transfer information on paper.
A telecommunications engineer working on a network server.
The transmission system, which is based on radio and television networks, uses a different format to transmit information. Both systems use electromagnetic waves that send audio and video information from one place to another. This can be achieved through an analog or digital method. The basic methodology for both principles was created at the beginning of the 20th century and quickly became the main methods of information transfer during the following century. One challenge with this form of technology is the fact that different frequencies are used for different platforms and locations around the world.
A telegraph, an old type of telecommunications technology.
Networked computers are very common in the modern world and are connected to a local area network or the World Wide Web. This telecommunications technology allows users to send and receive a variety of formatted information, such as text via email or video from webcams. There are different types of connections available for this technology to work. Early connection techniques included fixed-line analog-to-digital modems, while more recent methods included Ethernet lines and wireless connections using electromagnetic waves.
Communications satellites are a type of telecommunications technology.
