Telecommunication

Telecommunications

Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags. In the modern age of electricity and electronics, telecommunications now also includes the use of electrical devices such as telegraphs, telephones, and teleprinters, 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. A revolution in wireless telecommunications began in the first decade of the 20th century with pioneering developments in wireless radio communications by Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 for his efforts. 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), Edwin Armstrong, and Lee de Forest(radio), as well as John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth (television). The telecommunications industry is responsible for radio, television, voice communications, and broadband services. The growth and innovation of the telecom industry has enabled people to communicate across the globe and access endless amounts of information over the internet. Broadband services are becoming faster and easier to access with fiber optic networks and wireless services like WiMax and CDMA. Telecommunication services cover radio, television, voice (i.e. cell phones and telephones), and internet access (broadband). Broadband service is the primary area of growth for the telecommunications industry going forward.