Global - Industry - History of Telecommunications and Broadcasting

Synopsis

Archived report. This report was archived in 2009 and has not been updated since 2006. Since people wanted to say something to other people who were out of earshot, there have been attempts at communication. These attempts have advanced from carrier pigeons, signalling towers, smoke signals through telegraph, telephone, radio and satellite. Technology has advanced to allow TV, the Internet, high speed data transmission and a combination of these. This report includes a time line of the major developments in physical means of communication, then telecommunications for the past 2,500 years.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. From pigeons to the telegraph
• 3. The pioneering years
• 4. Commercialisation of telecommunications
• 5. The road towards a mass medium
• 6. The arrival of cellular mobile
• 7. Convergence into information highways
• 8. Related reports

• Exhibit 1 – Make it go around the globe
• Exhibit 2 – Jean-Maurice Emile Baudot (1804-1903)
• Exhibit 3 – Indo-European Line 1870
• Exhibit 4 – Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894),
• Exhibit 5 - Female telephone operators
• Exhibit 6 – ‘Hello’ from Thomas Edison 1889
• Exhibit 7 – Quote
• Exhibit 8 – No future in radios
• Exhibit 9 – Motorola 1930
• Exhibit 10 – ‘Bit’ 1946
• Exhibit 11 – No future in data communications
• Exhibit 12 – Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) - Global Village
• Exhibit 13 – Information Superhighway 1985
• Exhibit 14 – Global information infrastructure - 1994