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The Telecommunication Portal

Telecommunication, often used in its plural form, is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that feasible with the human voice, but with a similar scale of expediency; thus, slow systems (such as postal mail and pneumatic tube communication systems) are excluded from the field.

The transmission media in telecommunication have evolved through numerous stages of technology, from beacons and other visual signals (such as smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs), to electrical cable and electromagnetic radiation, including light. Such transmission paths are often divided into communication channels, which afford the advantages of multiplexing multiple concurrent communication sessions.

Other examples of pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages, such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. 20th- and 21st-century technologies for long-distance communication usually involve electrical and electromagnetic technologies, such as telegraph, telephone, television and teleprinter, networks, radio, microwave transmission, optical fibre, and communications satellites.

The early telecommunication networks were created with metallic wires as the physical medium for signal transmission. For many years, these networks were used for telegraph and voice services. A revolution in wireless communication began in the first decade of the 20th century with the pioneering developments in radio communications by Guglielmo Marconi, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909, and other notable pioneering inventors and developers in the field of electrical and electronic telecommunications. These included Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse (inventors of the telegraph), Antonio Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell (some of the inventors and developers of the telephone, see Invention of the telephone), Edwin Armstrong and Lee de Forest (inventors of radio), as well as Vladimir K. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth (some of the inventors of television).

With the proliferation of digital technologies since the 1960s, voice communication has been gradually supplemented by data. The limitations of metallic data transmission prompted the development of optics. The development of media-independent Internet technologies provided access to world-wide services for individual users without limitations to location or time. (Full article...)

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Male HDMI "Type A" connector

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controller, to a compatible computer monitor, video projector, digital television, or digital audio device. HDMI is a digital replacement for analog video standards.

HDMI implements the ANSI/CTA-861 standard, which defines video formats and waveforms, transport of compressed and uncompressed LPCM audio, auxiliary data, and implementations of the VESA EDID. CEA-861 signals carried by HDMI are electrically compatible with the CEA-861 signals used by the Digital Visual Interface (DVI). No signal conversion is necessary, nor is there a loss of video quality when a DVI-to-HDMI adapter is used. The Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) capability allows HDMI devices to control each other when necessary and allows the user to operate multiple devices with one handheld remote control device. (Full article...)

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Antenna (radio) Waveguide (radio frequency) Electrical engineering Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing Data communication Optical fiber Data Encryption Standard Cryptography History of the Internet AT&T Smartphone History of telecommunication Wireless Transmission medium Coaxial cable Packet switching Streaming media Telephone exchange Microwave transmission Distant Early Warning Line FM broadcasting Frequency modulation BT Group General Post Office Telegraphy Radio Television Internet Telephone Telephony Integrated Services Digital Network History of videotelephony Satellite phone Satellite radio Videotelephony Bell Telephone Company Cox Communications Radio broadcasting International Telecommunication Union Telecommunications engineering Carbon microphone Morse code History of television Cathode-ray tube AI Mk. IV radar Tokyo Tower Needle telegraph Submarine Telegraph Company Transatlantic telegraph cable Inverted-F antenna iPhone 6 300-page iPhone bill Electrical telegraphy in the United Kingdom Norwegian Public Safety Network BlackBerry Telecommunications in India Digital subscriber line Fiber-optic cable Fiber-optic communication Optical fiber

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General images

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

Image 1A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 2The 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)
Image 3Actor 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)
Image 4Reginald Fessenden (around 1906) (from History of radio)
Image 5Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 6Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available. (from History of television)
Image 7The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
Image 8Antonio Meucci, 1854, constructed telephone-like devices. (from History of the telephone)
Image 9The 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)
Image 10Oliver Lodge's 1894 lectures on Hertz demonstrated how to transmit and detect radio waves (from History of radio)
Image 11"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)
Image 12Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 13Artist's conception: 21st-century videotelephony imagined in the early 20th century (1910) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 14Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 15Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 16Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 17Australian 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)
Image 18The master telephone patent, 174465, granted to Bell, March 7, 1876 (from History of telecommunication)
Image 19Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right). (from History of television)
Image 20The 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)
Image 211917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 22The Australian Broadcasting Corporation logo, first introduced in 1975 and based on the Lissajous curve (from History of broadcasting)
Image 23Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 24RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 25Modern Apple iPhone. This phone is considered a smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 26Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 27Emil 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)
Image 28Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 29The 1969 AT&T Mod II Picturephone, the result of decades long R&D at a cost of over $500M. (from History of telecommunication)
Image 30Stock telegraph ticker machine by Thomas Edison (from History of telecommunication)
Image 31Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 32A replica of one of Claude Chappe's semaphore towers (optical telegraph) in Nalbach, Germany (from History of telecommunication)
Image 33The French Matra videophone (1970) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 34In 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)
Image 35Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
Image 36Guglielmo Marconi (from History of broadcasting)
Image 37Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 381896 Telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 39The 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)
Image 40The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 41Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company (England, 1906) (from History of radio)
Image 42Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander using an Ericsson videophone to speak with Lennart Hyland, a popular TV show host (1969) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 43Lee DeForest broadcasting Columbia phonograph records on pioneering New York station 2XG, in 1916 (from History of broadcasting)
Image 44An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 45Old Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 46The "Kerbango Internet Radio" was the first stand-alone product that let users listen to Internet radio without a computer. (from History of broadcasting)
Image 47AT&T Picturephone (Mod II) fully enclosed in its housing, control pad at bottom (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 48Around 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)
Image 49Typical low-cost webcam used with many personal computers (from History of videotelephony)
$Image 50Early experiment demonstrating refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897 (from History of radio)$

Image 50Early experiment demonstrating refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897 (from History of radio)
Image 51Antonio Meucci's telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 52Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 53Code of letters and symbols for Chappe telegraph (Rees's Cyclopaedia) (from History of telecommunication)
Image 54The 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)
Image 55AT&T magazine advertisement announcing commercial launch of Picturephone service. (from History of videotelephony)
Image 56Charles Logwood broadcasting at station 2XG, New York City, circa November, 1916 (from History of broadcasting)
Image 57Naomi ("Joan") Melwit and Norman Banks at the 3KZ microphone, in the late 1930s (from History of broadcasting)
Image 58The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 10, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 59Public television in France uses 819 line b&w high definition, from 1959 until 1983 (TF1). (from History of television)
Image 60
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 61British Post Office engineers inspect Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy (radio) equipment in 1897. (from History of radio)
Image 62The Regency TR-1, which used Texas Instruments' NPN transistors, was the world's first commercially produced transistor radio in 1954. (from History of radio)
Image 63An exposed view of the Picturephone's rear circuit board (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 64Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1856–1894) proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation (from History of radio)
Image 65Broadcasting pioneer Frank Conrad in a 1921 portrait (from History of broadcasting)
Image 66A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 67Caricature of Sir John Reith, by Wooding (from History of broadcasting)
Image 68A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 69DBS satellite dishes. (from History of television)
Image 70Reginald Fessenden, the "father" of radio broadcasting in the US (from History of broadcasting)
Image 71Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 72Right side view, housing removed, one of its printed circuit boards exposed (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 73"Doc" Herrold is shown at the microphone of KQW, early 1920s. (from History of broadcasting)

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Charles Bourseul (28 April 1829 – 23 November 1912) was a pioneer in development of the "make and break" telephone about 20 years before Bell made a practical telephone.

Bourseul was born in Brussels, Belgium, and grew up in Douai, France. His father was a French army officer. Charles worked for the telegraph company as a civil engineer and mechanic. He made improvements to the telegraph system of L. F. Breguet (a French instrument maker) and Samuel F. B. Morse. Charles Bourseul experimented with the electrical transmission of the human voice and developed an electromagnetic microphone, but his telephone receiver was unable to convert electric current back into clear human voice sounds. (Full article...)

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Guglielmo Marconi Alexander Graham Bell Nikola Tesla Samuel Morse Thomas Edison Antonio Meucci Paul Gottlieb Nipkow Vladimir K. Zworykin John Logie Baird Philo Farnsworth Ronald Hugh Barker

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... that Angeline Quinto became the first Filipino singer to release a soundtrack album for a television series that featured a single artist?
... that DBTel once took up 30 percent of the original equipment manufacturer market share for cordless phones in the United States?
... that Bell Labs' TD-2 microwave-relay system was used to carry television signals and telephone calls across North America?
... that saxophonist Jerry Jumonville was usually part of any band featured in the 1970s television series Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley?
... that Australian hotelier and television personality Simon van Kempen recorded a single, "I Am Real", in 2011?
... that Iowa radio station KTFC was partially powered by a wind turbine that the owner had bought from an Arizona wind farm?

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v t e Telecommunications
History	Beacon Broadcasting Cable protection system Cable TV Communications satellite Computer network Data compression audio DCT image video Digital media Internet video online video platform social media streaming Drums Edholm's law Electrical telegraph Fax Heliographs Hydraulic telegraph Information Age Information revolution Internet Mass media Mobile phone Smartphone Optical telecommunication Optical telegraphy Pager Photophone Prepaid mobile phone Radio Radiotelephone Satellite communications Semaphore Semiconductor device MOSFET transistor Smoke signals Telecommunications history Telautograph Telegraphy Teleprinter (teletype) Telephone The Telephone Cases Television digital streaming Undersea telegraph line Videotelephony Whistled language Wireless revolution
Pioneers	Nasir Ahmed Edwin Howard Armstrong Mohamed M. Atalla John Logie Baird Paul Baran John Bardeen Alexander Graham Bell Emile Berliner Tim Berners-Lee Francis Blake (telephone) Jagadish Chandra Bose Charles Bourseul Walter Houser Brattain Vint Cerf Claude Chappe Yogen Dalal Donald Davies Amos Dolbear Thomas Edison Lee de Forest Philo Farnsworth Reginald Fessenden Elisha Gray Oliver Heaviside Robert Hooke Erna Schneider Hoover Harold Hopkins Gardiner Greene Hubbard Internet pioneers Bob Kahn Dawon Kahng Charles K. Kao Narinder Singh Kapany Hedy Lamarr Innocenzo Manzetti Guglielmo Marconi Robert Metcalfe Antonio Meucci Samuel Morse Jun-ichi Nishizawa Charles Grafton Page Radia Perlman Alexander Stepanovich Popov Tivadar Puskás Johann Philipp Reis Claude Shannon Almon Brown Strowger Henry Sutton Charles Sumner Tainter Nikola Tesla Camille Tissot Alfred Vail Thomas A. Watson Charles Wheatstone Vladimir K. Zworykin
Transmission media	Coaxial cable Fiber-optic communication optical fiber Free-space optical communication Molecular communication Radio waves wireless Transmission line data transmission circuit telecommunication circuit
Network topology and switching	Bandwidth Links Nodes terminal Network switching circuit packet Telephone exchange
Multiplexing	Space-division Frequency-division Time-division Polarization-division Orbital angular-momentum Code-division
Concepts	Communication protocol Computer network Data transmission Store and forward Telecommunications equipment
Types of network	Cellular network Ethernet ISDN LAN Mobile NGN Public Switched Telephone Radio Television Telex UUCP WAN Wireless network
Notable networks	ARPANET BITNET CYCLADES FidoNet Internet Internet2 JANET NPL network Usenet
Locations	Africa Americas North South Antarctica Asia Europe Oceania
Category Outline Commons

v t e Telecommunications in Africa
Sovereign states	Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe
States with limited recognition	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Somaliland
Dependencies and other territories	Canary Islands / Ceuta / Melilla (Spain) Madeira (Portugal) Mayotte / Réunion (France) Saint Helena / Ascension Island / Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom) Western Sahara

v t e Telecommunications in Asia
Sovereign states	Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China Cyprus East Timor (Timor-Leste) Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen
States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan
Dependencies and other territories	British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau
Category Asia portal

v t e Telecommunications in Europe
Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Vatican City
States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria
Dependencies and other entities	Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Svalbard
Other entities	European Union

v t e Telecommunications in North America
Sovereign states	Antigua and Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominica Dominican Republic El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago United States
Dependencies and other territories	Anguilla Aruba Bermuda Bonaire British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Curaçao Greenland Guadeloupe Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saba Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten Turks and Caicos Islands United States Virgin Islands

v t e Telecommunications in Oceania
Sovereign states	Australia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Nauru New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu
Associated states of New Zealand	Cook Islands Niue
Dependencies and other territories	American Samoa Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Easter Island French Polynesia Guam Hawaii New Caledonia Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Pitcairn Islands Tokelau Wallis and Futuna

v t e Telecommunications in South America
Sovereign states	Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador Guyana Paraguay Peru Suriname Uruguay Venezuela
Dependencies and other territories	Falkland Islands French Guiana South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands