Telecommunication – Telephonic Communications
The word Telecommunication primarily stands for Telephonic Communications. Communication does not need any explanation; it is something we all do. Telephonic pertains to ‘via Telephone.’ And Telephone is again, an amalgamation of two Greek words ‘Tele’ meaning ‘far’ and ‘phonic’ meaning ‘sound.’ So, putting it all together we get ‘Communication at a distance using sound’, practically meaning – exchanging messages over a telephone.This process of communicating over a telephone has advanced to a great extent over the past few years. Over short distances though, wires are still used, mobile telephony or radio, is fast catching up. Communication over longer distances, sometimes spanning continents, is almost entirely wire-less.Telecommunication as a whole began sometime in 1893, when Nikola Tesla demonstrated his apparatus for Radio communication. A year later, Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose demonstrated use of millimeter range microwaves to ring a bell, in the distance. Bose also pioneered the use of the ‘coherer’. This was the first semiconductor-junction detector used in radio communication. He never agreed to patent his invention and allowed others to use it freely.Two years after this, about 1896, Marconi conducted his own experiments in Wireless Telegraphy, and the world was introduced to commercial telephony. There was no looking back from here. Several inventions and discoveries later, we converse with each other, today using various techniques like CDMA, GSM, Satellite telephony, to name a few. Our use of telecommunication is not limited to Earth alone. One of our man-made satellites, Explorer-I, built over 30 years ago, is at present on the fringes of our Solar System, still in ‘Telecommunication’ with us.