Telecommunications’ Past, Present and Future

In a way, we equate talking on the telephone to breathing because it is something we do. While telephones used to be a luxury, we consider them a necessity, and with our necessities, we want choice and convenience. Hoping to provide consumers with more communication choices, Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The act stipulated that local telephone companies had to give competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) assess to their lines along with other services. At the time, this was a massive improvement on our telecommunication resources. However, times are quickly changing. With the advent of cellular phones and the internet, companies are now fighting to offer their customers a variety of resources. Essentially, as our telecommunication technology grew, so did our needs. Thus, by the end of the 20th century, POTS transferred more data than voice, and as our technology evolved, our networking reached new highs.

Since their inception, plain old telephones services (POTS) allowed customers to carry voice conversations over great distances. The basic elements of a telephone include a “local loop” otherwise known as “the basic telephone line” (White 352). Essentially the loops are four or eight wires that run from our houses or business. While a customer would only need two lines, the convenience of multiple lines in one residence proved to be a contemporary necessity, so the amount of lines a person wants to own may become relatively expensive. In order for the telephone network to work, the lines must consist of a “subscriber loop, or standard telephone line, and a trunk” (White 353). However, one needs a higher frequency signal to send more information. In the early portion of the 19th century, POTS were based on “an analog system…[but, in the 1970s, they began to transfer] computer data signals as well as voice signals” (White 352). However, they had limitations. Because they were made to transfer human voices, the network was only able “transmit signals of approximately 3100 Hz” (White 356). In other words, the limitations affected the size of data we could transfer, so if we wanted to send any data over a telephone line, it would have to travel in one or more 4000 Hz channels. 

Regardless of data size, a local exchange carrier handles our local calls, and an interexchange carrier handles our long-distance calls; however, our local exchange carrier offers more common and thereby oft-utilized services. Centrex, or central office exchange service, is a specific service that provides current telephone facilities at the larger company’s local, or central, office, which are then offered to businesses that might use these services. Essentially, these businesses are spared any expenses incurred by technological advancements or innovations because the telephone company provides hardware, necessary revisions to old hardware, and telecommunication services. Nevertheless, businesses are not limited to Centrex. In fact, they are also able to use a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) instead. As the name implies, this is a system that is more centralized and privatized. It is a self-contained and computerized system that manages all in-house calls along with the directing of calls to outside telephone lines. This service still provides given telephone services such as voice mail, call forwarding, and the most cost-efficient dialing plans available.

Alongside these two services, there are also competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) that combine many features. CLEC can consist of small companies such as cable television operators or interexchange carriers.  While the smaller companies are fully functional, they often have very little equipment of their own, if any at all. On the other hand, the interexchange carriers are long-distance telephone companies. They allow credit card and calling card dialing and international access with operator and directory services. Interexchange carriers are particularly limited for local usage. The proliferation of CLECs also lead to incumbent local exchange carriers (ILEC) being required to give CLECs access to their telephone lines and other services, or otherwise known as Telecommunications Act of 1996. 

Subsequently, it seems along with communication services, consumers were expecting services that would enhance entertainment. For example, a 56k modem was a popular choice for the late 1990s consumer because its download speed was relatively fast. At one time, consumers predominantly requested a 56k modem to access the Internet. Its download speed allowed up to 56,000 bits per second, so the old load time for Internet pages was reduced. Essentially, the 56k modem combines analog and digital signaling, so it is a hybrid design. These two varieties of signaling resulted in necessary conversions being made when data reached particular points. This hybrid design causes analog signals to convert into digital data. Specifically, it created a quantizing noise, or distortion, which occurs when analog data is converted into a digital signal and then back into an analog signal. Computers manipulate digital data, so when an analog signal enters, the modem converts the analog signal back to digital data. However, in light of high-speed needs, homes and businesses began to find dial up lines too slow.

As a result, the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) uses a permanent circuit, so it is always on. Essentially, it allows twisted pair telephone lines to transmit multimedia materials and high-speed data. Its speed varies, but it is usually between hundreds of thousands to several million bits per seconds. Because it uses existing telephone lines, it is more cost efficient. In addition, a subscriber will enjoy high speeds when uploading his or her multimedia. Accordingly, it is an added advantage because it allows for this utilization without necessitating another network’s construction.  However, a subscriber’s speed depends on his or her connection speed.  For the most part, residential subscribers have asymmetric connections. This type of connection allows them to have a faster downstream. On the other hand, a symmetric connection’s download and upload stream are even. Ultimately, subscribers preferred the DSL’s constant connection to dial up. 

Eventually, we began to use cable modems as a device that connects to a personal computer with an Ethernet cable using a signal from a coaxial cable that runs into the home. The modem separates the signal used for the computer from the television signal. Since modems were relatively new, telephone companies used to lease lines. The lines did not involve dialing, and they were permanent. This permanency and direct correction is best illustrated through the ‘two cans and a string’ as a makeshift telephone or private and tie lines, which are telephone lines that require no dialing and are permanent direct connections between two specified points. However, unlike the concept of two cans and a string, leased lines are still privy to telecommunication services such as call waiting and conference calls.

Frame relay is a high-speed communications technology originally developed to support bursts of data traffic and bandwidth overbooking. Consisting of end points such as PCs, access points like routers, and network devices, like switches or network routers, with which to use these points, frame relay allows for faster transmission for a relatively low cost. In essence, it is a way of sharing information across a wide area network (WAN) that then encapsulates the information into ‘frames’, or packets, each with a unique address that the network then uses to decide the destination of the information. 

The packets of information travel through a series of network devices. Switched virtual circuits (SVCs) and permanent virtual circuits (PVCs) establish a connection between two endpoints. PVCs are established by the network operator and may be added upon if there is need of new sites, alternate routes, or even simply increased available bandwidth. On the other hand, SVCs are established on a call-by-call basis. It is very similar to dialing a particular number—users specify their destination’s address and it goes from there. Committed information rate (CIR), in a frame relay network is the average amount of bandwidth for these circuits that is guaranteed to work under normal working conditions. CIR is more inclusive, referring to voice and non-data packets as well as ordinary data packets.  Frame relay also happens to be fairly similar to Asynchronous Transfer Mode.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is similar to frame relay because it “is a very high-speed, packet switched service that is offered by a number of communication companies” (White 369). Despite these basic similarities, ATM operates differently from frame relay via cells. In 53-byte packages, these cells send the data, and because they are so small, they can “quickly pass through a node and continue on its way to its destination” (White 369).  ATM has the advantage of splitting up packets into smaller sizes in order to allow sending with less delay. Frame relay, on the other hand, had variable packet sizes. 

At 56Kbps, ATM was less cost-effective than frame relay for WAN. ATM could guarantee usable extra bandwidth, whereas, frame relay had the availability of increased bandwidth for an increased traffic load, but it did not necessarily offer the assurance that it would be available. In order to increase efficiency, convergence became a key component of both cost-effectiveness and network efficiency.

Convergence in telecommunications is essentially the combination of communication services. In other words, it modifies existing services to offer new ones along with the old ones. The simplest and most immediate example of this is cable television providers. The majority of providers offer Internet access along with telephone services, and it is all on one network. This combination of services facilitates ease of use through sheer convenience of having multiple services readily available. However, convergence is also evident in wireless networks, and a “proven networking infrastructure that supports the convergence traffic (voice, video, data)” (Alrefai, Amer, and Hassan 33) that allows for optimized quality in the delivery of the aforementioned streams. Convergence, ultimately, is a beneficial inevitability for any sort of data delivery. 

Convergence combines the traffic that these streams receive in order to improve the quality by lessening the load, as it were, on multiple streams that deliver different tasks. In the past, the “voice traffic and data traffic transported on two separate networks [and] each [used]… a different switching/routing architecture” (Alrefai, Amer, and Hassan 33). On the other hand, wireless 2G/3G/4G networks, as the name implies, are mobile and not tied to any one spot unlike DIAL-UP modems. This is mobile computing, extending beyond the usage of mobile phones alone. As an illustration, it is common to see one person using a laptop while connected to a GSM phone, and we consider that person “a mobile user engaged in mobile computing” (Alrefai, Amer, and Hassan 33).

In other words, mobile computing created many pieces that can extend from the original phone. Multi-protocol label switching, or MPLS, enables the forwarding of packets of data for any relevant network. These packets are encapsulation, which separates network functions from their full structure. More or less, encapsulation is taking apart a puzzle and seeing the separated parts and how they fit back together. 

It is difficult to conclude that we would have reached these technological conveniences without Telecommunication mergers. Admittedly, companies had to merge in order to survive. At one time, telephone companies such as AT&T and MCI were the most popular telephone services, but they began to lose revenue because they did not offer unlimited long-distance calling. Therefore, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Kevin Martin proposed two sets of phone companies merge. In this case, one merger would consist of SBC Communications and AT&T, and the other merger would join Verizon and MCI. However, the mergers were subject to debate, and when the FCC finally approved the mergers, they based it on a “host of conditions placed on the deals in areas such as special access, digital subscriber line (DSL) service, Internet neutrality, peering, and wholesale pricing” (16). While many agreed the mergers would be beneficial, opponents worried that the conditions encouraged micromanaging. 

Regardless, it seems our government maintains that they should regulate telecommunication, so the possibility for micromanagement remains likely. In contrast, in his article "A Clash of Regulatory Paradigms: When Should Policymakers Promote Competition, and When Should They Accept and Regulate Monopoly?" author Christopher Yo explains that “the Federal Communications Commission began to retreat from this policy during the 2000s in favor of a more deregulatory course” (42).  Initially, it seems that the former control was due to the relatively new nature of merging. In order to make sure companies followed orders, it was necessary for the government to keep tabs. At the same time, our future telecommunication systems will probably be subject to rate regulation. However, the amount and how we would regulate our rates remains to be seen. 

With that in mind, networking and telecommunication regulations seem to be the constant factor in our technologies’ evolution. While the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a considerable help, one cannot help but wonder if it is still valid. While many people still talk on the telephone, a large majority exists on their smart phones, laptops, and iPads to use text messaging, email, and video phone services such as Skype to communicate. One can only guess at what the future will bring, but judging by our telecommunication history, we can expect constant progress and newer technologies. 

Works Cited

Alrefai, Hasan, Amer N. AbuAli, and Hassan Mohammad. "Convergence Traffic Over Wireless Networks." International Journal of Academic Research I Part 3.4 (2011): 33-37. Academic OneFile. 

Business Telephone Systems. Digital image. Intercity. Intercity UK, n.d. http://www.intercity-uk.com/fixed-and-data/business-telephone-systems.

Gotsch, Ted, and Lynn Stanton. "After Much Debate, FCC Reaches Compromise, Approves SBC-AT&T, Verizon-MCI Mergers." Telecommunications Reports 71.22 (2005): 16-19. Business Source Index. 

Subramanian, Viswanath. One-Way Multicast. Digital image. Frame Relay Networks - A Survey. Bay Networks, n.d. http://www.cse.wustl.edu/~jain/cis788-95/ftp/frame_relay/.

White, Curt. "Voice and Data Delivery Networks." Data Communications and Computer Networks. 6th ed. N.p.: Course Technology, 2011. 351-86.

Yoo, Christopher S. "A Clash of Regulatory Paradigms: When Should Policymakers Promote Competition, and When Should They Accept and Regulate Monopoly?" Regulation 22 Sept. 2012: n. p. Academic OneFile.