Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
But.then.something.changed.
It.is.likely.that.his.namesake,.Bell.Labs,.and.others.like.it.
can.be.held.responsible.for.at.least.some.of.those.changes.
Without. getting. into. the. history. of. the. invention. of. the.
digital. computer,. sufice. it. to. say. that,. mostly. as. a. result. of.
wartime.efforts.to.encrypt.and.decrypt.communications,.the.
digital. computer. was. developed. during. World. War. II,. and.
nothing.has.ever.been.the.same.
And.that.is.especially.true.when.we.talk.about.telecommu-
nications.. As. telecommunications. began. to. take. advantage.
of.digital.computing.and.its.attendant.eficiencies,.an.entire.
sea-change.occurred.in.the.engineering.of.the.systems.that.
enabled.telephonic.communications.worldwide.
The. irst. digital. records. that. occurred. as. a. result. of. that.
change.were.simply.records.of.the.switching.of.connections.
within.the.system..But.very.soon.there.were.(and.are).records.
created. of. every. connection. to. every. other. connection,. as.
well. as. the. time. spent. and. the. location. of. each. connected.
device.. As. computer. technology. began. to. enable. different.
uses. of. telephonic. communications,. the. attendant. records.
became.more.and.more.concise.and.important.
To.get.a.better.understanding.of.telecommunications.as.it.
exists.today.and.all.of.the.resultant.electronic.records.that.we.
need.to.take.into.account,.let's.begin.with.a.basic.look.at.how.
it.all.works.
*
We.begin.with.what.is.known.in.the.telecom.industry.as.
the. POTS,. or. the.
Plain. Old. Telephone. System
. (yes,. they.
really. call. it. that).. To. those. of. us. old. enough. to. remember.
this,. these. are. the. old. “Princess”. phones,. or. other. plastic.
devices. that. might. even. have. dials. rather. than. buttons. and.
that.plugged.directly.into.the.wall.with.no.need.for.any.other.
power.source.
This.relatively.simple.infrastructure.is.still.the.basic.inter-
nal.system.that.supports.our.modern.telecommunications..It.
consists. of. a. pair. of. copper. wires. that. extend. from. phone.
*.
http://www.corp.att.com/history/..Retrieved.2011-02-12.
