On the 20th day of A2Z Challenge 2019, I shall talk about the A2Z of Telecommunication. Telecommunication is the process of exchanging information between two communicating participants with the help of telecommunication devices. Telecommunications devices include telephones, radio, fibre, satellites and the Internet. Today’s post is an extension of my earlier post on networking. In this post, I shall discuss some of the commonly used telecommunication technologies.

A2Z of Telecommunication: Telecom Tech

Telecommunication Technologies can be divided into two parts – wired and wireless.

Wired

In Wired mode, FTTH is the widely used method for Telecommunication. FTTH stands for Fibre To The Home. In this method, each and every subscriber is connected to an optical fibre. The fibre directly comes from the data centres of ISP (Internet Service Provider). FTTH replacing traditional copper wires because:

• its carrying capacity is high. It provides much higher bandwidth.
• reduces operational and maintenance costs.
• it is immune to Electromagnetic Interference.

Wireless

Cellular technology is the most widely Wireless mode of telecommunication. In India, most of the mobile phone use 4G (4th Generation cellular technology). Earlier this month, South Korea became the first country to launch the 5th Generation cellular technology. The Government of India is also in plans to make 5G services available in the country by the first half of 2020. The 5G spectrum auction is likely to be held in the month of June-July, 2019. Spectrum is the fuel for the telecom industry. Experts suggest that 5G will become the gateway for the Internet of Things.

Mobile services started with 1G, launched in 1979. It was based on analog technology. One could only make a voice call or send a text message. The communication channels had a lot of noise.

2G was the first network that was built on digital technology. 2.5G and 2.75G enabled Internet and multimedia services. 2.5G was popularly called GPRS and allowed data transfer up to 64kbps. 2.75G was called EDGE and allowed data transfer up to 256 kbps. 4G operators (without VoLTE) still use the 2G network for routing voice calls.

Next was 3G mobile services. It introduced video calling and high-speed internet services. 3G – WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and 3G-HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) offered speeds of up to 384kbps and 14.4mbps. Many operators are planning to phase out 3G services by the end of 2020.

4G network was a packet-based network. It’s meant for data usage. Voice calls are routed through the 3G/2G network. 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the upgraded version of the 4G network. Theoretically, you can browse up to 100mbps. The VoLTE (Voice over LTE) technology allows voice calls to be routed through the 4G network. Thanks to VoLTE technology, voice calls are now completely FREE in India.