The information age is upon us. The raw materials are ones and zeros. The technology used to transport the ones and zeros provides numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers. Telecommunications is dynamically changing the way we work, learn, communicate, and view society. At no other time in history have so many people been given the ability to exchange ideas, sell their products, or learn through research and study. E-commerce, business-to-business information exchange, surfing the Web, chatting on the Internet, calling anywhere in the world, low long distance and local telephone rates, and hundreds of calling features are just some of the services being carried across the information superhighway.
The dilemma we all face is that we must adapt to the information age and the constant changes it presents. We all need to be versed in the way information is managed in order to function in the new digital society. Think of telecommunication as a huge jagged jigsaw puzzle with pieces that change continuously. In order to become part of the new digital technology, you must understand how the pieces fit together: 1939 IBM engineers and Howard Aiken of Harvard start on the Mark I computer. 1943 Alan Turing’s “Colossus” computer breaks the German Enigma code. 1946 Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) computer is built. 1946 Von Neumann, Goldstine, and Burks publish paper on computer concepts.1949John Cameron Swayze becomes anchor of Camel News Caravan.
1951 First sitcom, “I Love Lucy”, aired on U.S. commercial television. 1953 F.C.C. approves system of broadcasting color television. 1960 Televised Presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon. 1980 Ted Turner starts Cable News Network (CNN).
1991 The STAR network begins Asian broadcasts. 1617 John Napier shows how to multiply and divide using rods or bones. 1949 ILLIAC I built at University of Illinois employing the Von Neumann design. 1951 UNIVAC I machine installed at U.S. Census Bureau. 1956 Computer beats human player in chess game. 1957 IBM unveils FORTRAN programming language. 1959 Jack St.
Clair Kilby of Texas Instruments invents integrated circuits. 1960 Livermore Advanced Research Computer (LARC) built with transistors. 1969 U.S. Department of Defense creates ARPANET computer network. 1971 Engineers at Intel invent the microprocessor. 1972 Nolan Bushnell introduces “Pong” video game.
1972 Ray Tomlinson sends first E-mail using @ in address. 1974 First personal computers introduced. 1974 First time that a bar code scanned groceries at a supermarket. 1976 Cray Research sells first supercomputer. 1977 A glove device to facilitate computer interaction is patented. 1977 George Lucas’ computer effects in Star Wars revolutionize filmmaking.
1979 Pac-man video game first sold in Japan. 1980 Dan Bricklin and Dan Flystra write software for VisiCalc spreadsheet. 1981 IBM introduces personal computer, using Microsoft operating system. 1982 French postal and telegraph service hooks up nation on Minitel network. 1983 Internet emerges as ARPANET splits civilian from military networks. 1984 Apple Computer introduces its Macintosh machine including a mouse. 1985 Microsoft introduces its first version of Windows.
1991 World Wide Web begins. 1992 Michelangelo computer virus detected in the United States. 2000 Widespread computer glitch, Y2K, expected with new millennium The Kingsbury Commitment of 1913 marked the beginning of AT&Ts monopoly. The Bell System and independent telephone operators reduced competition out of concern for government intervention. The government had been increasingly worried that AT&T and the other Bell Companies were monopolizing the industry. Under Theodore N. Vailfrom 1907 AT&T had bought Bell-associated companies and organized them into new hierarchies. AT&T had also acquired many of the independents, and bought control of Western Union, giving it a monopolistic position in both telephone and telegraph communication.
It is also credited with using almost illegal methods to eliminate competition. Vail stated that there should be “one policy, one system (AT&T’s) and universal service, no collection of separate companies could give the public the service that [the] Bell… system could give.” Faced with a government investigation for antitrust violations AT&T had to act. America’s universal telephone network was constructed primarily by the competitive marketplace. Unregulated competition between telephone exchange operating companies began in 1894, with the expiration of Alexander Graham Bell’s patents, and continued for twenty-five years. This early rivalry between the Bell and independent telephone interests led to a headlong race to wire the country. The result was an extremely rapid advance in household and business telephone penetration and the geographic coverage of the network.
It was competition and independent construction, not subsidies, that brought the telephone to rural America. The Communications Act of 1934 For the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio so as to make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of the national defense, for the purpose of promoting safety of life and property through the use of wire and radio communication, and for the purpose of securing a more effective execution of this policy by centralizing authority heretofore granted by law to several agencies and by granting additional authority with respect to interstate and foreign commerce in wire and radio communication, there is hereby created a commission to be known as the ”Federal Communications Commission,” which shall be constituted as hereinafter provided, and which shall execute and enforce the provisions of this Act. The Rural Electrification Act of 1936.
generally authorizes Secretary of Agriculture to make rural electrification and telephone loans, to investigate and publish reports on matters affecting the condition and progress of rural electrification and telephone service and to assist borrowers that implement conservation and renewable energy programs; authorizes necessary appropriation levels. In fact, Western Union was at first offered the patent to this invention–but refused it. As Bell started to commercialize this invention, others began to see its potential. However, Theodore Vail, the President of American Telegraph & Telephone (AT&T), sought to avoid competition by establishing a new principle: that of a natural monopoly. He argued that it would be unwise to allow competition in the deployment of telephone networks, and permit a number of independent telephone systems to develop in the same city, each competing with each other: both for customers and for space to string their wires. The idea he proposed–that of a natural monopoly or public utility–was that there should be only one Telephone Company and that, since it would be a monopoly, it would be regulated by the government in order to protect the consumer.1968 -FCC approves Carterphone Decision.
AT&T ordered to revise tariffs effective 1/1/69 to permit connection of CPE. (It took about 10 years of legal action to get Part 68 of the FCC rules in place and operational by 1978).
AT&T starts development of the Integrated Digital Services Network (ISDN).
Gary Englehart at Stanford Research Institute demonstrates the first combination of a keyboard, keypad, mouse, windows and word processor. Dan Noble, IBM, developed the 8-inch floppy disk. Its capacity increased from 33K in 1971 to 1200K in 1977.
AT&T starts 56 Kbps service. Pieter Kramer (Philips) invents the compact disk. The break-up of the AT&T monopoly into the 7 regional Bell operating companies, Bellcore, and the 22 Bell operating companies. Divestiture resultedfrom the 1984 Modified Final Judgment, which settled the governments long-standing antitrust suit against AT&T. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is the first major overhaul of telecommunications law in almost 62 years. The goal of this new law is to let anyone enter any communications business — to let any communications business compete in any market against any other. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has the potential to change the way we work, live and learn.
It will affect telephone service — local and long distance, cable programming and other video services, broadcast services and services provided to schools. The Federal Communications Commission has a tremendous role to play in creating fair rules for this new era of competition. Source: Forward to Introduction to Telecommunications by Rosengrant.