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The Evolution of Telecommunications Technology and Policy. Chapter 3. Objectives. In this chapter, you will learn to: Describe the growth of telecommunications technology since the late 19th century Identify key inventions and their current equivalents in telephony technology
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The Evolution of Telecommunications Technology and Policy Chapter 3
Objectives In this chapter, you will learn to: • Describe the growth of telecommunications technology since the late 19th century • Identify key inventions and their current equivalents in telephony technology • Explain the impetus for and impact of AT&T’s divestiture • Discuss how government has influenced the way in which consumers obtain telecommunications services • List current policy trends that affect the telecommunications industry
Early Signaling and Telegraphy • Semaphore - a type of signaling, in which visual cues represent letters or words. • Morse code - the transmission of a series of short and long pulses (dots and dashes) that represented characters. • Duplexing - simultaneously transmitting a signal in both directions along the same wire. • Multiplexing - simultaneously transmitting an indeterminate number of multiple signals over one circuit.
Telephone Technology • In 1913, N.J. Reynolds, a Western Electric engineer, developed a better automatic switch, the crossbar switch. It used a grid of horizontal and vertical bars, with electromagnets at their ends. The horizontal bars could rotate up and down to connect to specific vertical bars and thus complete circuits. • Time division switching - a transmission technique in which samples from multiple incoming lines are digitized, then each sample is issued to the same circuit, in a predetermined sequence, before finally being transmitted to the correct outbound line.
Telephone Technology • Space division switching - manipulating the physical space between two lines, thereby closing a circuit to connect a call. • Local switching center (often called a local office) - a place where multiple phone lines from homes and businesses in one geographic area converge and terminate. • Tandem switching center - an exchange where lines from multiple local offices converge and terminate. • Toll switching center - an exchange where lines from multiple tandem switching centers converge and terminate.
Wireless Technology • Telegraphs and telephones are examples of wireline, or wire-bound technology, because they rely on physically connected wires to transmit and receive signals. • Wireless technology - relies on the atmosphere to transmit and receive signals.
Wireless Technology • Vacuum tube - a sealed container made of glass, metal, or ceramic, that contains, in a vacuum, a charged plate that transmits current to a filament. • Audion - patented in 1907by DeForest, is a type of vacuum tube that contains an additional electrode in the middle of the positive and negative electrodes. • Frequency modulation - one wave containing the information to be transmitted (for example, on a classical FM radio station, a violin concerto) is combined with another wave, called a carrier wave, whose frequency is constant.
Wireless Technology • Geosynchronous - means that satellites orbit the earth at the same rate as the earth turns. • Uplink - a broadcast from an earth-based transmitter to an orbiting satellite. • At the satellite, a transponder receives the uplink, then transmits the signals to another earth-based location in a downlink.
Early Computing • Computing - the automatic manipulation of input based on logical instructions. • Difference engine - an English mathematics professor (Charles Babbage), proposed an automated calculating machine as large as a locomotive and powered by steam. • Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) - a multipurpose computer so large that it required its own 30 foot by 50 foot room.
Early Computing • Memory - in the mid-1940s, a U.S. scientist named Jon Von Neumann designed a computer that was capable of retaining logical instructions for use at any time, even after the computer had been turned off, then on again. • UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) - the first computer designed for business (and not merely scientific purposes), became available in 1951.
Early Antitrust Measures • After acquiring dozens of new patents from other companies and exponentially increasing its value, the Bell Telephone Company became American Bell in 1880. • In 1882, American Bell gained a controlling interest in the Western Electric Company, and together, they became known as the Bell System. • In 1885, American Telegraph and Telephone (AT&T) was incorporated as a subsidiary of the Bell System, with the aim of constructing a long distance telephone network and providing long distance service (to Bell System subscribers only). • By 1899, AT&T bought out American Bell and became the parent company of the Bell System.
Early Antitrust Measures • Until 1984, AT&T consisted of the following: • AT&T, the parent company and long-distance provider • 22 Bell Operating Companies (BOCs), the telephone companies that provided local service in different regions of the nation • Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of the company • Bell Telephone Laboratories, the research and development arm of the company, responsible for innovation and new technology
Early Antitrust Measures • Kingsbury Commitment - fearing that the government might use its antitrust laws against it, AT&T approached the U.S. Department of Justice in 1913 with a proposal for reducing its monopoly. • As a result of the Kingsbury Commitment, AT&T functioned as a regulated monopoly from 1913 to 1984. Being a regulated monopoly meant that although AT&T was allowed to provide services without any competitors, it was subject to a great deal of constraints dictated by the government
The Communications Act of 1934 • From 1910 to 1934, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) regulated telegraph and radio service. • In 1934, Congress passed the Communications Act of 1934, which established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), state Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs), and initial guidelines for the telephone industry. • The Communications Act of 1934 also put into law the provisions of the Kingsbury Commitment.
Challenging the Monopoly • Hush-a-Phone decision - a Supreme court ruling that allowed "foreign attachments," or devices that were not manufactured by AT&T to be affixed to AT&T telephones. • However, the Hush-a-Phone decision did not allow other companies’ equipment to interconnect with AT&T lines
Challenging the Monopoly • The restriction against interconnecting to AT&T’s telephone network was challenged in 1965 and eventually lifted in 1968 through the Carterfone decision. • In 1969, a company called Microwave Communications International (MCI) began carrying business phone calls over a private microwave link between St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago. Because MCI didn’t use the Bell System, it did not have to pay AT&T for use of its infrastructure.
AT&T Divestiture • The Modified Final Judgment (MFJ) - accompanied by over 500 pages of instructions detailing exactly how AT&T should be divided. • The Justice Department’s primary goal for breaking up AT&T was to spur innovation and competition in a field that would prove even more vital in the latter part of the century than it had in the first.
AT&T Divestiture • As part of the MFJ, AT&T was forced to divide. • From the 22 former Bell Operating Companies that provided local phone service and phone directories, the MFJ created seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). • The business that AT&T kept was separated into two divisions: AT&T Technologies, which handled the innovation and production of new technologies, and AT&T Communications, which handled long distance phone service. • The research and development business, formerly Bell Laboratories, became Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) and was jointly owned by the new RBOCs.
AT&T Divestiture • Until the divestiture of AT&T, the distinction between local service and long distance service was not clear. • In the MFJ, Judge Harold Greene subdivided each RBOC region into Local Access and Transport Areas (LATAs), roughly equivalent to area codes at that time. • Phone service within a specific LATA was known as intraLATA service. • Companies that supply local, or intraLATA telephone service are known as local exchange carriers (LECs).
AT&T Divestiture • InterLATA - a service that allowed for calls between LATAs was known. • Interexchange carriers (IXCs) - another name for InterLATA service providers. Examples of IXCs include Sprint, MCI (now WorldCom), and AT&T. • Equal access - requiring local phone companies to provide equal access to their facilities meant that AT&T no longer had an unfair advantage over new competitors in long distance services.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 • The Act codified requirements for the interconnection of all local exchange carriers. These policies included: • Interconnecting with other service providers and not imposing any barriers to interconnection • Enabling nondiscriminatory resale of their services to competitors • Providing number portability, or the ability of telecommunications service users to retain their same telephone number without hampering the quality, reliability, or convenience of their phone service • Allowing competitors to access and connect to their facilities
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 • To increase competition in local phone service, the Act placed the following requirements on all ILECs: • Negotiating interconnection agreements in good faith • Providing competitors with the same type and quality of access to their facilities that they themselves could obtain at their cost • Providing competitors with access to subscriber information, such as telephone numbers and billing data • Offering nondiscriminatory, wholesale prices for telecommunications services to all competitors
Emerging Technologies • At this time, Congress is debating a bill that would remove all long-distance and high-speed Internet access service restrictions on RBOCs. • One issue that the RBOCs continue to battle is the access fees applied to each connection with a customer or another carrier. • In 1999, Congress mandated cable service providers to allow any Internet company to distribute content over its infrastructure without any extra cost
Summary • In 1837, Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, which consisted of an electromagnet and a hand-operated switch, known as a key, to alternately open or close an electrical circuit over a wire. What he transmitted was a series of short and long pulses (dots and dashes) that represented characters, known as Morse code. • To connect multiple subscribers, Alexander Graham Bell devised the telephone exchange, where subscriber lines terminated and operators connected the circuits to complete a call. • The first computer designed for business (and not merely scientific purposes), the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) became available in 1951.
