As a younger man, when I wanted to communicate with my friends or relatives overseas, it was a hassle. I had to write a letter. The youths of the 2000 decade may be asking ‘write what…?’ To write a letter I needed a couple of sheets of ruled paper, a size ten envelope, a pen, White Out and stamps. By the time I gathered my apparatus, I completely forgot what I wanted to compose.
Prior to telephony, people communicated via the telegraph machine by sending a coded message on a wire from one point to another, using the Morse code. Credited to inventor Samuel Morse, the code was taken and inspired by the African mathematical beat and sequence of the talking drum. Other forms of communication were the newspapers – people paid to get their messages printed so the person(s) in the area it’s distributed will see it; telegrams delivered by messengers; birds to deliver notes; smoke signals – especially for armies and letters.
On March 7, 1876 it all changed. Alexander Graham Bell introduced the telephone (the patent was sold by its African-American originator Granville Woods also known as the Black Thomas Edison, who sold his invention to the American Bell Telephone Company). It was the first successful bi-directional transmission of clear speech! Bell spoke into the device, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” Watson answered. The brief stern request was the catalyst to the evolution of telephony.
Digital telephony has dramatically improved the capacity, quality, and cost of communication. It is responsible for the new transmission methods such as fibre optic, which is a common communication service providers today. The further development of digital telephony, witnessed the birth of Internet Protocol (IP) telephony, commonly referred to as Voice Over IP (VoIP). This involves the application of digital networking technology, which is the foundation to the Internet, in order to create, transmit, and receive telecommunications sessions over computer networks.
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