Telecommunications' Journey from Past (Smoke Signals, Drum Beats) to Present (Internet, Telemetry), and The Way Ahead - 2010 and Beyond

From the past to present, it has been a long journey for the Telecommunications. Many innovations, new ideas and alternative technologies have richly contributed to the growth of telecommunications. As early as in 3000 BC, the use of smoke and drum beat for signaling were with innovations like encoding information by varying the size, hue, and position of the smoke puff and by varying sound beat pattern of the drums.

One of the present day applications of telecommunications is in telemetry and tele-transfer of data, The traditional fields like agriculture, crop production, farm irrigation, besides many other fields, are deriving benefits. It is a long way ahead to see many more technologies that will be newer and more innovative to appear and to enrich the telecommunications.

This paper attempts to highlight some of the above mentioned aspects and pays tributes to large number of scientists, mathematicians, engineers, technologists, organizations and their R & D groups who have immensely contributed to the telecommunications.