When Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, it went down in history as a landmark moment in the history of telecommunications. Since then, the Scottish scientist’s initial creation has been remodelled many times over, leading to today’s world of smartphones and Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP). Just how did we advance so far in such a relatively short period of time?

This infographic by Irish Telecom charts the evolution of telephony from Bell’s breakthrough 140 years ago to the present day. When the telephone was debuted, it was primarily used for businesses such as doctors and banks, although its abundance spread over the following decades and international calls were routinely being made in the early part of the 20^th century.

It wasn’t just the communication capabilities which were expanding, either. Following on from the long-standing ‘candlestick’ phone, touch-tone dialling was introduced in the 1960s, replacing the need to pull at a rotary phone. Two decades later, the concept of portable phones became a reality, although these were only used by wealthy business people at first due to their exorbitant cost. Cellphones did become mainstream by the advent of the 21^st century, which also saw the advent of Skype, a closed VoIP network provider allowing for calls to be made from one computer to another over the Internet free of charge.

Even in the last 20-30 years, telephony has been revolutionized almost beyond recognition. It isn’t all that long ago when the thought of being able to call someone from a portable handheld device with a touchscreen interface while in transit seemed like a far-fetched idea. Indeed, to people of this generation, the notion of individuals manually connecting wires to one another through a central station, as was commonplace in the telephone’s early years, seems alien. This goes to show just how far we have come since Bell’s Eureka moment in 1876, and it seems quite likely that in a decade’s time, Skype could be seen as taken for granted or even as a throwback to a bygone era.

Infographic source: www.irishtelecom.com