Question

What is the latest development in the field of communication?

Answer 1

Over the years human beings have used different methods of long-distance communications of which the telegraph and the telephone were important. Even today, the telephone is the most commonly used mode. In developing countries, the use of cell phones, made possible by satellites, is important for rural connectivity. Today there is a phenomenal pace of development. The first major breakthrough is the use of optic fiber cables (OFC). Faced with mounting competition, telephone companies all over the world soon upgraded their copper cable systems to include optic fiber cables.

These allow large quantities of data to be transmitted rapidly, securely and are virtually error-free. With the digitisation of information in the 1990s, telecommunication slowly merged with computers to form integrated networks termed as the Internet. Internet is the largest electronic network on the planet connecting about 1,000 million. As billions use the Internet each year, cyberspace will expand the contemporary economic and social space of humans through e-mail, e-commerce, e-learning, and e-governance. Internet together with fax, television, and radio will be accessible to more and more people cutting across place and time. It is these modem communication systems, more than transportation, that has made the concept of a global village a reality.