Portal:Telecommunication

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The Telecommunication Portal

Earth station at the satellite communication facility Raisting Earth Station in Raisting, Bavaria, Germany

Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electrical or electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of transmission may be divided into communication channels for multiplexing, allowing for a single medium to transmit several concurrent communication sessions. Long-distance technologies invented during the 20th and 21st centuries generally use electric power, and include the telegraph, telephone, television, and radio.

Early telecommunication networks used metal wires as the medium for transmitting signals. These networks were used for telegraphy and telephony for many decades. In the first decade of the 20th century, a revolution in wireless communication began with breakthroughs including those made in radio communications by Guglielmo Marconi, who won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics. Other early pioneers in electrical and electronic telecommunications include co-inventors of the telegraph Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse, numerous inventors and developers of the telephone including Antonio Meucci, Philipp Reis, Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell, inventors of radio Edwin Armstrong and Lee de Forest, as well as inventors of television like Vladimir K. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth.

Since the 1960s, the proliferation of digital technologies has meant that voice communications have gradually been supplemented by data. The physical limitations of metallic media prompted the development of optical fibre. The Internet, a technology independent of any given medium, has provided global access to services for individual users and further reduced location and time limitations on communications. (Full article...)

Selected article -

A 300-page iPhone bill from AT&T Mobility mailed in a box was the subject of a viral video made by YouTube personality Justine Ezarik, best known as iJustine, which became an Internet meme in August 2007. Ezarik's video focused on the unnecessary waste of paper, as the detailed bill itemized all data transfers made during the billing period, including every email and text message. Stories of unexpected billing issues began to circulate in blogs and the technical press after the iPhone's heavily advertised and anticipated release, but this video clip brought the voluminous bills to the attention of the mass media.

Ten days later, after the video had been viewed more than 3 million times on the Internet and had received international news coverage, AT&T sent iPhone users a text message outlining changes in its billing practices. The information technology magazine Computerworld included this incident in its list of "Technology's 10 Most Mortifying Moments". (Full article...)

General images

The following are images from various telecommunication-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  In the 1920s, the United States government publication, "Construction and Operation of a Simple Homemade Radio Receiving Outfit", showed how almost any person handy with simple tools could a build an effective crystal radio receiver. (from History of radio)
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  Naomi ("Joan") Melwit and Norman Banks at the 3KZ microphone, in the late 1930s (from History of broadcasting)
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  Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
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  Broadcasting pioneer Frank Conrad in a 1921 portrait (from History of broadcasting)
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  Typical low-cost webcam used with many personal computers (from History of videotelephony)
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  Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
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  The Australian Broadcasting Corporation logo, first introduced in 1975 and based on the Lissajous curve (from History of broadcasting)
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  Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
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  A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
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  Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
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  The Marconi Company was formed in England in 1910. The photo shows a typical early scene, from 1906, with Marconi employee Donald Manson at right. (from History of broadcasting)
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  AT&T magazine advertisement announcing commercial launch of Picturephone service. (from History of videotelephony)
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  Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander using an Ericsson videophone to speak with Lennart Hyland, a popular TV show host (1969) (from History of videotelephony)
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  The master telephone patent, 174465, granted to Bell, March 7, 1876 (from History of telecommunication)
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  Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in a 1932 silent film. Shows Bell's second telephone transmitter (microphone), invented 1876 and first displayed at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. (from History of the telephone)
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  British Post Office engineers inspect Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy (radio) equipment in 1897. (from History of radio)
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  The first commercial AM Audion vacuum tube radio transmitter, built in 1914 by Lee De Forest who invented the Audion (triode) in 1906 (from History of radio)
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  The "Kerbango Internet Radio" was the first stand-alone product that let users listen to Internet radio without a computer. (from History of broadcasting)
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  An exposed view of the Picturephone's rear circuit board (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
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  Replica of the telettrofono at Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy, invented by Antonio Meucci and credited by several sources as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
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  Early experiment demonstrating refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897 (from History of radio)
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  An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
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  AT&T Picturephone (Mod II) fully enclosed in its housing, control pad at bottom (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
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  Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
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  Lee DeForest broadcasting Columbia phonograph records on pioneering New York station 2XG, in 1916 (from History of broadcasting)
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  The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
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  Stock telegraph ticker machine by Thomas Edison (from History of telecommunication)
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  Antonio Meucci, 1849, developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
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  The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
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  Guglielmo Marconi (from History of broadcasting)
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  Caricature of Sir John Reith, by Wooding (from History of broadcasting)
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  Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
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  Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)
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  Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company (England, 1906) (from History of radio)
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  Reginald Fessenden (around 1906) (from History of radio)
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  Australian radio sets usually had the positions of radio stations marked on their dials. The illustration is a dial from a transistorised, mains-operated Calstan radio, circa 1960s. (Click image for a high resolution view, with readable callsigns.) (from History of broadcasting)
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  The Regency TR-1, which used Texas Instruments' NPN transistors, was the world's first commercially produced transistor radio in 1954. Size: 3×5×1.25 inch (7.6×12.7×3.2 cm) (from History of radio)
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  Artist's conception: 21st-century videotelephony imagined in the early 20th century (1910) (from History of videotelephony)
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  First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
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  Tihanyi' Radioskop patent (1926) was recognized as Document of Universal Significance by the UNESCO (from History of television)
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  Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
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  The earliest photograph of a television picture, showing the face of Oliver Hutchinson in June 1926. The television picture was projected using Baird's television camera. (from History of television)
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  Code of letters and symbols for Chappe telegraph (Rees's Cyclopaedia) (from History of telecommunication)
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  A replica of one of Claude Chappe's semaphore towers (optical telegraph) in Nalbach, Germany (from History of telecommunication)
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  Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
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  Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
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  Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
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  The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
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  A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
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  Around 1920, radio broadcasting started to get popular. The Brox Sisters, a popular singing group, gathered around the radio at the time. (from History of radio)
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  Ferdinand Braun (from History of broadcasting)
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  Oliver Lodge's 1894 lectures on Hertz demonstrated how to transmit and detect radio waves. (from History of radio)
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  Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
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  1896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
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  The Kyocera VP-210 Visual Phone was the first commercial mobile videophone. The Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) phone was introduced in Japan (1999). (from History of videotelephony)
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  Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
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  RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
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  Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
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  Emil Voigt, founder of 2KY on behalf of the Labor Council of New South Wales. This photo was taken in earlier days when Voight was a prominent British athlete, and winner of the Gold Medal for the five mile race at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. (from History of broadcasting)
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  "Doc" Herrold is shown at the microphone of KQW, early 1920s. (from History of broadcasting)
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  DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
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  The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
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  1917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
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  Reconstruction of Aeneas Tacticus' hydraulic telegraph (4th c. B.C.) in Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, Athens, Greece. (from History of telecommunication)
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  A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
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  Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
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  Bell prototype telephone stamp
  Centennial Issue of 1976

  (from History of the telephone)
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  Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
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  "Fiction becomes fact": Imaginary "Edison" combination videophone-television, conceptualized by George du Maurier and published in Punch magazine. The drawing also depicts then-contemporary speaking tubes, used by the parents in the foreground and their daughter on the viewing display (1878). (from History of videotelephony)
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  Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1856–1894) proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation. (from History of radio)
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  The French Matra videophone (1970) (from History of videotelephony)
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  Early pioneers of radio science and technology in the United States including Charles Steinmetz, David Sarnoff, Irving Langmuir and Alfred Goldsmith in 1921, photographed next to the antenna feed wires of the New Brunswick Marconi Station, one of the first transatlantic radio links. Photo includes Albert Einstein as a visiting guest. (from History of radio)
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  Reginald Fessenden, the "father" of radio broadcasting in the US (from History of broadcasting)
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  Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
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  Right side view, housing removed, one of its printed circuit boards exposed (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
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  Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
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  Innocenzo Manzetti considered the idea of a telephone in 1844 (from History of the telephone)
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  The British Broadcasting Corporation's landmark and iconic London headquarters, Broadcasting House, opened in 1932. At right is the 2005 eastern extension, the John Peel wing. (from History of broadcasting)
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  Charles Logwood broadcasting at station 2XG, New York City, circa November, 1916 (from History of broadcasting)
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  The 1969 AT&T Mod II Picturephone, the result of decades long R&D at a cost of over $500M. (from History of telecommunication)

Things to do

Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : Start a new article, WikiProject Telecommunications Other : Expand this portal

Selected biography -

Vladimir Zworykin, c. 1956

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (1888/1889 – July 29, 1982) was a Russian-American inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology. Zworykin invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode-ray tubes. He played a role in the practical development of television from the early thirties, including charge storage-type tubes, infrared image tubes and the electron microscope. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated) -

• ... that Lachlan Murdoch was forced to resign as a director of Prime Media Group because the company owned a radio station on Queensland's Sunshine Coast?
• ... that despite little formal education, Earnest Andersson was a successful inventor, businessman, amateur athlete, race car driver, pilot, photographer, radio operator, pro golfer, and composer?
• ... that the satellite TRUTHS is planned to enable the precise calibration of Earth observation data from other satellites?
• ... that a California radio station came to exist because a high-school faculty advisor was on leave in Europe?
• ... that Liu Yunbin, the son of the second president of the People's Republic of China, was a graduate in radiochemistry and contributed to the development of China's first atomic bomb?
• ... that the Voice of Freedom had to counter venomous snakes, leeches, and other wildlife?

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