Thread by @break_ItDown98

In the first post of breakItDown, we look at the history of telephones and phone nos. Let's dive deep into the technology that changed the world and brought it closer.

Initially, 2 telephone endpoints were hardwired and couldn’t talk with anyone else but the already existing telegraph network changed that. Telegraph worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. These stations were used as telephone exchanges.

Telephone endpoint was connected to a telephone exchange which routed the call to the other end point. Initially, this was done physically via switchboards which were restricted to a small local area.

To enable long distance calling, telephone exchanges were connected via trunks.

A person lifts the receiver off-hook and asks the operator to connect the call to a number. If it is in the same central office, and on the operator's switchboard, the operator connects the call by plugging the ringing cord into the jack corresponding to the called person's line.

If the called party's line is on a different switchboard in the same office, or in a different central office, the operator plugs into the trunk for the destination switchboard or office and asks the operator answering (known as the "B" operator) to connect the call.

Improving the manual system, automatic electronic switching circuit was introduced wherein a switching circuit acted as the telephone exchange and automatically routed the call to the dialled number.

The number was identified by “pulses” in rotary phones and later by “tones” in push buttons

The ownership of the invention of the telephone is confusing. Alexander Graham Bell got the patent but there is a debate over who deserved it more - Gray or Bell

The advent of telephones in India was In 1880 when two telephone companies - The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and The Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. - approached the Government of India to establish telephone exchange.

The permission was refused on the grounds that the establishment of telephones was a Government monopoly and that the Government itself would undertake the work.

However in 1881, the Government reversed its earlier decision and a license was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company Limited for opening telephone exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Ahmedabad and the first formal telephone service was established in the country.

Following this, on 28 January 1882, Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General of India's Council declared open the Telephone Exchanges in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.

The exchange in Calcutta named the "Central Exchange" had a total of 93 subscribers in its early stage. Later that year, Bombay also witnessed the opening of a telephone exchange.

While all the major cities and towns in the country were linked with telephones during the British period, the total number of telephones in 1948 numbered only around 80,000.

Post-independence, growth remained slow because the telephone was seen more as a status symbol. The number of telephones grew to 980,000 in 1971, 2.15 million in 1981 and 5.07 million in 1991, the year economic reforms were initiated in the country.

In early 1980’s, Rajiv Gandhi invited Sam Pitroda, a US-based Non-resident Indian NRI and a former Rockwell International executive to set up a Centre for Development of Telematics(C-DOT) which manufactured electronic telephone exchanges in India for the first time.

In 1985, the Department of Telecom(DoT) was separated from Indian Post & Telecommunication Department. DoT was responsible for telecom services in entire country until 1986 when MTNL and VSNL were carved out of DoT to run the telecom services of metro cities

The demand for telephones was ever increasing. In the 1990s, Indian govt was under pressure to open up telecom sector for private investment as a part of Liberalisation-Privatisation-Globalisation policies that the govt had to accept to overcome the severe fiscal crisis in 1991

In 1997, the government set up TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) which reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policymaking

To comply with the standards set by International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in India, the National Numbering Plan of 2003 by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) is used as the standard to assign telephone numbers.

The STD code is the code assigned to a particular city, area in India. It can be between 2-8 digits. Shortest for big metropolitan cities. 22 for Mumbai, 124 for Gurugram. Area code + Number = 10 digits long phone number.

For the number:
BSNL and MTNL landline numbers start with a '2'
Reliance Communications landline numbers start with a '3'
Bharti Airtel landline numbers start with a '4'
MTS (Shyam) landline numbers start with a '5'
Tata Indicom landline numbers start with a '6’

To dial a landline number in Mumbai,
one would have to dial from a landline in Mumbai: the phone number
from a landline in Indore: 022 and then the phone number
from any mobile phone in India: 022 and then the phone number
from outside India: +91, then 22, and then the phone no

Shorthand/speed call nos like 100, 101, 102 designated by DOT translate to unique nos when calling

India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone) with 1.1724 billion subscribers as on 31 Dec 2019

Wired telephony market share as on 31 December 2019
BSNL: 9.57 million (46.0%)
Airtel: 4.31 million (20.7%)
MTNL: 3.12 million (15.0%)
Tata Communications: 1.79 million (8.6%)
Reliance Jio: 1.05 million (5.1%)
Reliance: 0.55 million (2.6%)
Vodafone Idea: 0.4 million (1.9%)

Although telephone technology has now become overshadowed by the disruptive technology of the Internet and protocols like VoIP, we still remember the romance of the telephone. We hope this thread did justice to the technology that ushered in a new era in telecommunication.

@threadreaderapp compile please!

#Telegram #telephone #Invention #technology