The telephone was based on the telegraph and used electrical signals carried along copper wires.
Instead of an on-off signal, it carried a replica of the sound waves created by a human voice.
For the first time, people could use this 'analogue waveform' to communicate over distance.
The telephone was discovered almost by accident. What people thought they were looking for was a way to make the telegraph work faster and more profitably - by sending distinct musical notes or tones simultaneously along the wires with a separate message sent on each frequency.
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Owning a telephone was all very well - but not much use without someone to call . It was one of many 'chicken and egg' situations in the history of telecommunications - which comes first, the network or service? The application or the need?
Without selling telephones,...
The first telephone networks were tiny, connecting a handful of users in closely located buildings, with a small switchboard in between.
But it didn't take long for those networks to grow from tens of people to hundreds, then thousands.
At the same time, the...
As we stand at the beginning of the 21st century, there are four main trends that are shaping the world of telecommunications, media and entertainment.
Those trends are digitalisation, convergence, fragmenting audiences and the growth of the internet.
