Telecoms History
However, it had humble beginnings. Electronic communications had its origins in the invention of the electromagnet by British scientist William Sturgeon around 1825. This tool enabled electric current to be sent over metal wires and Americans Joseph Henry and Samuel Morse developed the electric telegraph.
Until the arrival of the telephone in 1877, all rapid long-distance communication depended upon the telegraph. Many thousands of miles of wire were strung over poles linking communities to each other. The telegraphic technology became more sophisticated with the creation in 1881 of the Postal Telegraph System. Based on Morse Code millions of words could be transmitted by skilled operators. Teleprinter machines were invented in 1925 and Telex in 1959. The telegraphic process was never replaced by the telephone. The worked side-by-side for many year the latter carrying voice traffic and the former other data forms
The telephone was invented by Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell. Both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically. Both men rushed their respective designs to the US patent office within hours of each other, but Alexander Graham Bell got there first. A legal battle ensued which Bell won.
From this point on the use of the telephone gradually increased. By the end of 1880, there were 47,900 telephones in the United States. But development was limited by the ability of the wires to carry voice signals for great distances. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that the invention of a device that was to form the basis of much development in electronic communications happened - the three element electron tube. Not only did this product lead to national and global telephone services but electron tube based amplifiers made possible the development of many technologies including radiotelephony, microwave transmission, radar and television.
The importance of the telephone became increasingly clear and after the Second World War private telephone companies (AT&T) in the US were regulated by the government and in most of the rest of the world telecommunications was subsumed under a government department (in the UK private company NTC was bought out by the General Post Office and in New Zealand telephones were operated by New Zealand Post and Telegraph).
Also in the 1980s the industry underwent major changes with deregulation and privatisation removing much of the previous government influence. Companies merged and expanded so that most telecommunications around the world was carried out by a handful of extremely large trans-national companies who capitalised on the rise of digital technologies and the consequent convergence of telecommunications, computers and television to become dominant market players in the media environment challenging both broadcasters and computer companies for dominance.