Telco Origins - Part 2

One of the most common complaints about telecommunications companies are their size.  These large global conglomerates have difficulty responding quickly to their clients, or delivering a personalized suite of services that more accurately reflect on what those customers need compared to a one size fits all model.  That's where the Cywest approach actually makes a difference. We bring that level of personalization and service to fill in the gap that the large carriers aren't effectively built to do.  Everyone thinks the issue of telecommunication monopolies is relatively new, that it began over the last two decades as technology advanced heavily into both the office and the home.  This is simply not true.

In reality, Western Union, the company that we think of whenever we have to wire money in a pinch to our children, or to bail out a loved one that's had one too many, was the first telecommunications monopoly.  It was formed initially as a regional alliance of several smaller firms.  They divided up the country in sections amongst themselves, acting much like a cartel would do today in the drug trade.  The Civil War helped drive up the profits and fees of the company because the telegraph was so valuable in passing information back and forth.  The confederate states could not match the level of sophistication and connectivity of the Union army.  Had they been able to do so, the world might be a very different place.  Following the war, Western Union took over many of the lines that were built by the government, making themselves virtually the only game in town.

For several years after that, efforts were made to install telegraph lines under the water in order to expand communications globally.  Most of the early efforts, primarily sponsored by America, failed but by 1866, the first successful connection between England and America was established.  It would take another fifty years to actually get connectivity across the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, a Scotsman living and working in Boston named Alexander Graham Bell was experimenting with a machine that could diagram the shapes of sound waves by tracing their vibrations.  He thought that, if he could generate moving electrical currents that corresponded to sound, he could then audibly transfer those currents to an alternate endpoint and convert them back to sound on the other end.  All he needed was a working model and some financial backing in order to test his theory.  Two wealthy backers, named Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, financially backed Bell's experiments and helped him attain patents for his creation.  In 1875, Bell achieved the first early working telephone and filed for rights ownership in early 1876.  Even then, the telco industry was full of controversy as a man named Elisha Gray, who was doing his own experiments with acoustic telegraphy, fought unsuccessfully for the rights.

Once again, history teases us with what might have been - it's hard to think of "ringing a gray" when it's time to call the kids in for supper.

More to come...

Telco Origins - Part 1

I was giving a lecture to a group of eager young students a few years ago and I asked if any of them had an idea of who created American telecommunications.  I chuckled when one student raised their hand and guessed Ma Bell, as if that was the name of an elderly maternal woman that had launched a global industry. Part of the reason for the ignorance is that, like so much of the telco industry, the story has many facets that make it difficult to definitively trace the history.  That ends today.  I am going to tell you the annotated history of telco over the next few weeks because, in order to understand the business and its path of evolution, it helps to know the back story and how decisions and innovations have shaped our industry over the years.

You could argue that the early use of smoke signals and drums by the natives were actually the first recorded use of telecommunications.  They were used in much the same societal role as systems today - to send messages to, and communicate with, the applicable parties they wished to reach.  Can you imagine the stress of primitive IT workers way back then?  There was no such thing as an email registering a complaint; it was more likely a disgruntled colleague showed dissatisfaction by shooting the technician with an arrow or clubbing them over the head.  Job security was fleeting.

While there were basic systems developed in the late 1700's through the early 1800's resulting in the creation of the semaphore system, that system itself was abandoned several years later because the towers were way too expensive and it was difficult to find enough operators that had the skill to actually use and manage it.  The telegraph system, invented by Samuel Morse in 1844, is considered the earliest industrial iteration of successful telecommunications. Originally used primarily by the Post Office, the telegraph system actually grew and expanded along with the building of the railroad systems. These communication links  were integral in moving goods and people from East to West and back again along the tracks.  In many instances telco connectivity was established in an area before being followed by railroad construction.  No wonder "training" is such a huge requirement for our industry!  :-)