Telephony – Communication Evolution

One of the most important inventions of man, the telephone is the one system that united the world with its amazing but innovative device. Today, the whole complex of communication system is aptly called telephony. These days, there are many terms attributed to it, but means the same.

The basic technology is simply the sending and receiving of voice calls from one party to the other. The old system had wires and cables as carrier of the vital information system. When far distances became a difficulty, the transmission and reception of the voice used radio. 

The steady development of the system had now been integrated into one fully functional system using all the available technology known to man. When computers and digital technology altered many things in modern living, the telephone is one of the systems integrated into the new digital technology.

Invention of the phone

When the phone was invented and later took over the communications industry, it had effectively leapt over the old postal system and later, the expensive telegraphic system. The postal system is the slowest using letters to send messages. Telegrams were fast but expensive.

Slowly, the phone system which started on limited capacities all over the (mostly) urban centers of the world became the main carrier of information, fast and accurate since it carries the voices of the parties concerned (caller and receiver) across distances in a technology that was unknown before.

Any from any part of the planet can talk to anyone these days like they are physically present in front of each other.

Advancements

Today’s phone services are now employing digital technology. Some of the old vestiges (hardware and software) of the old systems are still in use in some areas of the world. They are now presently integrated with the new dominant technology. The old analog system (signal carrier) had been converted into digital.

Today’s systems in many parts of the world are using digital in providing their communications services. Some the old analog systems in existence had been fully integrated into the complex.

There are many benefits to this development. The biggest are the reduction of costs, improved quality of the services, and the ease with which to use the system compared to the ones in the old days. ISDN now allows data to be sent through the wires. This was superseded with the use of digital services using IP protocols.

CTI

The integration of the computer into the communication systems of phones readily eased up the speed of the services. The computer took over the controls in sending and receiving voices, and with additional features like caller identifications and telephone directory services, to name a few.

There are now service providers offering information services like automatic identification marking the big difference between the plain call switching to CTI (computer telephone integration) services. This is one of the main reasons for the reduction of costs.

The unified communication features (voice to email, cellular extensions, etc.) are now one of the de factor features of today’s telephony Australia.