Explore the History and Future of Communications
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Explain the historical context of the communications industry.
- Identify current communications industry trends.
A Brief History of the Communications Industry
As Aristotle said, “Humans are by nature a social animal.” From the dawn of civilization to today’s digitally immersed culture, people tell stories to connect.
Pre-1800s
For our ancestors, information spread through word of mouth, writing, smoke signals, drums, fire beacons, and eventually, with the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, printed documents. Instantaneous long-distance communication wasn’t possible until the invention of the telegraph in the early 1800s.
1800s
Western Union’s telegraph monopolized telecommunications throughout the 1800s. Sensing the opportunities available for a competitor, trailblazers such as Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Watson, Thomas Edison, Antonio Meucci, and Elisha Gray experimented, developed, and commercialized the telephone service. Following his patent of the telephone in 1876, Bell co-founded AT&T, which established the first long-distance telephone network in 1899.
Early 1900s
By the early 1900s, AT&T was a major competitor of Western Union, and there were telephone exchanges in many countries around the world. These exchanges were connected using a mixture of cables, radio signals, connectors, and repeaters. Demand was high, but capacity was low. Telephone calls were expensive and had to be booked in advance.
Mid-1900s
Capacity improved during the mid-1900s, with the introduction of microwave links and undersea data cables. The first commercial communications satellites launched in the 1960s, further expanding the global telecommunications network.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the US Defense Department developed the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), which used data packet switching for data transfer. This was the precursor to the internet we know today and laid the groundwork for the development of the World Wide Web, led by Tim Berners-Lee. By the late 1980s telecommunications was a huge part of our daily lives and included the internet, digital cell phones, and fiber-optic cable.
Early 2000s
Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter launched in the 1990s and early 2000s, changing the way we shop, make friends, and interact with each other.
It’s amazing to consider how quickly telecommunications changed the way we live and work. In 2000, less than 7% of the global population was online. Twenty years later, just over half (51%) of the global population were internet users (World Economic Forum). Emerging technologies and world events have increased our reliance on telecommunications networks as people spend more of their work and home time online.
What’s Next?
CSPs now face rapidly increasing demand for fast, reliable telecommunications products and services. Competitive communications markets require CSPs to innovate to deliver improved products and services at the same, or reduced, prices.
Let’s take a look at some CSP innovations.
Considerations
What impacts do these innovations and others, such as Network-as-a-Service, have on CSPs?
- Automated vehicles, smart motorways, and smart sports stadiums are now being built, and they require considerable investment in edge computing technology infrastructure.
- While businesses use data collection from new technologies such as IoT to tailor products and services to customer needs, this also creates privacy and security concerns. Also, huge volumes of data are collected and processed. This contributes to the drive for 5G and improved cloud technologies, and impacts CSPs, who must keep on top of associated legislation and technological capability.
- Microservices provide opportunities for CSPs to scale their provision and reduce costs in a flexible, secure way, and would be a key consideration as part of a CSP’s digital transformation strategy.
- In a perfect future world, use of AI and ML will create “zero touch” networks, which identify and solve potential issues before they happen. For now, these technologies allow the CSP to improve network performance, reduce network costs, and support infrastructure monitoring and maintenance.
- CSPs need to assess their infrastructure, technology investments, and potential offers in light of the trend toward increased use of TaaS.
Most of these technologies have been around for a while now. However, the pace of innovation and the need for improved flexibility and resilience mean that many telecommunications companies now seek to use the digital transformation aspects of these innovations to operate more efficiently and effectively in future.