Telecommunications Evolution Timeline

Telecommunications Evolution Timeline

The history of communication dates back to 1200 BC when Homer talks about signaling fires in the Iliad. Communications has evolved over hundreds of years from carrier pigeons to phones to the internet. Thousands of technical advancements throughout history have helped develop the way we communicate today and some will be mentioned in this paper.

Telegraph

Samuel Morse developed and revolutionized long distance communication with the invention of Morse code in the early 1830s and 1840s. Electric signals were transmitted over a wire laid between stations. The code was assigned a set of dots and dashes to represent each letter of the alphabet. Morse sent his first telegraph message in 1844 from Washington D.C to Baltimore Maryland.

Alexander Graham Bell

At the age of 29, Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone in 1876. In 1877, he formed the Bell Telephone Company. After the telephone, Bell had invented the photo phone which would allow sound to be transmitted on a beam of light. In 1881, he was successful in doing so with his assistant. Bell’s invention of the photo phone reveals the principle of which today’s laser and fiber optic communication systems are founded.

AT&T Corp

Originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was at times the world largest telephone company, world’s largest cable television operator, and a regulated monopoly. AT&T started as the Bell Patent Association, a legal entity established in 1874 to protect the patent rights of Alexander Graham Bell after his invention of the telephone.

FCC

The FCC was created after the Communications Act of 1934 because there need to be a better way of determining who got to use what radio bands and for what purposes. The Radio Act 1912 was the first attempt to make a more legislative oversight to the radio industry and whoever wanted to transmit over radio had to do so by obtaining government issued permission in the form of a license. FCC took...