Worldwide Networks

It began with computers whispering through telephone lines. Speeds grew with ADSL, then skyrocketed with fiber optics and wireless networks. Today, we stream and share at gigabit speeds—what started as tone signals now powers a world of instant communication. Mobile phones followed a similar journey: from car-mounted bricks in the 1950s to sleek smartphones that are always online.

Networks before the Internet

Computers were initially connected to the Internet using the telephone network. The data signals were converted into tone codes. This was done by a MODEM (MOdulatorDEModulator), maximum speed 56 kbps. Later, only the telephone lines (not the voice channel) were used with ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) with speeds of 8 - 24 Mbps. Nowadays, data fibers are used, where the signals are transmitted optically at speeds of 1 - 10 Gbps (or more). The signals are often transmitted by radio (Wi-Fi). The speed you actually experience in a radio network is affected by a variety of factors (e.g. 1 - 10 Gbps or more).

When you are connected with your computer or mobile phone, you can get in touch with lots of services. An old example is Minitel. A French videotex system, an early predecessor to the internet, which was launched in the 1980s and became enormously popular in France (also tried in Sweden) for everything from ordering food to chatting. It continued to exist in parallel with the internet before being shut down in 2012.

If you wanted to send a copy of a document using data traffic, fax was useful in the early 80s.

Mobile Phones

The first Swedish mobile phone system was called MTA and came out in 1951. It could only be installed in cars and weighed about 40 kg. The first “portable” phone came with the NMT system (Nordic Mobile Telephony system) in 1981. You could only talk on the phone, nothing more. The system was analog and easy for unauthorized people to eavesdrop on. In 1986, the NMT900 system followed, now if you had a large enough pocket, you could fit your phone in it.

Then came the development sequence 3G, 4G, 5G, 6G. It is now about what is called Smartphones. It is not really a phone in the usual sense, but a miniaturized computer, which is wirelessly connected almost constantly to the Internet. We can watch TV, order things, listen to music, send pictures and videos, use social services, turn on the sauna at home, pay bills, etc. yes, you can actually make calls with it too!

Smartphones have radically changed people's behavior.