Exciting Facts About Telecommunications

We use telecommunications every day, from picking up the phone to order pizza to reading this blog post. It’s easy to take this incredible technology for granted—we can hardly function without it. Here are some interesting facts behind the most common uses for technology in West Virginia:

  • The first cross-continental phone line: The very first cross-continental phone line in America reached from New York City to San Francisco. There were 14,000 miles of copper wire used, and over 130,000 telephone poles. It took about a year to connect.
  • A very profitable invention: The telephone is the country’s most profitable invention—ever.
  • Honoring Bell: When Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, died in 1922, all phones stopped ringing for a full minute in his honor.
  • Keep mice away: Telephone wires used to be rated by how tasty they were to mice. The less tasty, the better—those were the wires and coatings that were used for telecommunications.
  • Inside your fiber optic cable: Over a million threads can fit inside a half-inch diameter fiber optic cable tube.
  • Meta SMS tones: The Nokia text message tone is actually Morse code for the letters “SMS.” That’s appropriately meta for one of the original brands that made texting ubiquitous.
  • First text: The first text message was sent by Neil Papworth. It read, “Merry Christmas.”
  • Most common cellphone use: Did you know that despite phone calls, internet, texting, taking photos and all the other tasks our cell phone can perform, checking the time is actually the most common way people use their cell phones?
  • Free wi-fi: Eventually, the FCC wants to make wi-fi free for everyone in America. If it happens, you could ostensibly make VoIP phone calls for free.
  • VoIP: Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is most commonly used in online gaming communities. It allows you to make voice calls using the internet.
  • Making international calls: International calls used to be bounced off satellite receivers and then back to the phone lines. Today, most international calls are made via fiber optic cables and VoIP.
  • Longest cable: The longest phone line is called FLAG, which stands for Fiber Optic Link Around the Globe. It stretches nearly 17,000 miles between Japan and England and can carry 600,000 calls at the same time.
  • Call 911: The 911 system was introduced to West Virginia and the rest of the United States in 1968.
  • You, me and the data packets: When you call someone, there’s no longer a direct connection between the two of you over the phone lines. Instead, your call is made up of data packets that move between the devices.

Telecommunications can be quite exciting—even more so when you realize just how much of our daily lives are dependent on the ever-evolving technology.

If you’re interested in setting up telecommunications in your West Virginia business or facility, the experts at GlobalTech Communications can help. Reach out to us today to learn more about our services, get a quote and get connected. We look forward to working with you!

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