14.1: Introduction

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Donald Coffelt and Chris Hendrickson
Carnegie Mellon University via Donald Coffelt and Chris Hendrickson

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Telecommunications assist information exchange over a distance by means of transmitters, a transmission medium and receivers. A variety of transmission media have been used over time, such as the electric connection used in telegraphy or fiber optic cables for the Internet. Digital messages are becoming the norm for telecommunications, with analog signals such as speech translated to digital signals for transmission. A variety of protocols exists for interpreting messages on different media.

Figure 14.1.1 shows the growth over a fifteen-year period in various aspects of telecommunications, focusing on telecom and internet service. The rapid growth in Internet users and in mobile cellular subscribers is particularly notable.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Global Telecoms Statistics (1991-2006). Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States, Public Domain.

Figure 14.1.2 shows the growth over time of a segment of telecommunications, namely international calls from or to the United States. The amount of traffic has increased substantially, while the price per minute has declined by an order of magnitude from 2000 to 2014.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): International Telecommunication Minutes and Prices for the US, 2000-2014. Source: FCC, Public Domain, transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Rele...C-340121A1.pdf

Telecommunications are dominated in the United States by private corporations (FCC 1996). Overseas, examples of both private and public providers exist. The ownership structure for telecommunications infrastructure is complex, with building owners responsible for their own internal telecommunications and companies often sharing facilities such as cell towers or neighborhood telephone poles.