Communication is the key trait of human beings. We like to communicate with each other and express information, messages, and emotions through communicating. As man is a social animal and lives in groups of like-minded individuals, to remain in a group of people, communication is necessary and regarding communication, we have devised different methods.
Humans communicate through visual cues, face expressions, hand signs, and most importantly through our voice. The human voice has been the main source of communication between us and has been since our creation. Early homo sapiens also communicated through different types of voices way before any formal language was adopted. With the progress of civilization, different cultures made their own languages for communication between their people, and this practice is still going on to this date.
Although voice communication was the primary means of communicating with one another, this was something that humanity was unable to do in long-distance communications. Sure you can talk to a person standing a few feet away but what about talking to people that are hundreds of thousands of miles away from you? This was a question that humanity was unable to answer for thousands of years, and long-distance communication mostly resorted to writing letters that were carried across vast distances through messengers.
Even though when humanity first discovered digital means of long-distance communications the sounds that we’re able to be transmitted were quite limited. If we take an example of the telegraph, there were only two types of sound that this device was able to receive and transmit. A combination of these sounds named dot and dash was used to form letters and whole sentences which was a complicated and tiring process.
However, the telecom industry was revolutionized in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell tried his technology for the first time to call his assistant Thomas Watson uttering the famous words “I want to see you”. He named this gadget the telephone.
The telephone was such a revolutionary technology that it has not only enjoyed a long run being the undisputed king of long-distance communication but also it is something which is still available today. Yes, the home phone is still very much prevalent although in its modern form. If you are also interested in getting a home phone, you can check out Spectrum home phone service that works over VoIP technology, something which we will discuss further. It allows users to make unlimited local and long-distance calling at a fixed monthly charge.
Modernization in Voice Transmission
Ever since humanity discovered the technology to transmit data over long distances through wires or other means, we have always tried experimenting with all such technologies. Even in the case of voice transmission, it was these experiments that allowed mankind to make such progress in the field of digital communication.
Specifically speaking about voice transmission, our voice is made up of vibrations of vocal cords and travels as sound waves, the earliest technology of voice communication, the telephones took these sound waves and transferred them as analog signals over the traditional copper wires. Back in the day, this process was costly and complicated as it needed a whole infrastructure of telephone wires and exchange offices that routed these voice signals along their designated routes to the recipient’s telephone.
However, by time humanity started progressing and the technology behind voice communication was also modernized with each step of technological progress. Now we have gadgets for wireless communication, satellite phones, and also technologies like the internet that can carry voice signals in no time at less cost and without any complexity. These technologies are the fruit of those experiments and technological advancements that humanity made after inventing the process of digital communication.
We have written this article specifically to discuss some of the voice transmission techniques that are prevalent and mostly used by people today. These technologies include the pioneer landline, internet-based VoIP, radio waves and satellite technologies, and even modern cellular technology.
Types of Voice Communication Technologies
In the below-mentioned list, we have explained how different voice techniques work, their pros and cons, as well as their practicality, complexity, and cost aspects.
Landline
This is the oldest voice transmission technique that is used to date. The landlines use copper wires to transmit analog voice signals from one place to another. A landline infrastructure is made up of telephone poles and exchanges through which the voice signals travel and are routed by telephone exchanges to reach their destination point. Although, the landline structure is outdated and the transmission quality might not be great still this is the most reliable mean of voice communication since it is the least affected by outside interference and even works during power outages. However, it is an expensive service, especially for international calling.
VoIP
VoIP is a technology that uses the internet to transmit voice signals from one end to another. This is a protocol called voice over internet protocol that converts analog sound signals into digital data which is carried across the internet to the receiver. Almost all internet-based communication apps use this technology to send voice signals. Plus this technology is now also being integrated into modern home phones to give them enhanced features. VoIP is also cost-effective however it does have reliability issues as if the internet goes down the VoIP phone goes down as well, similarly, a VoIP phone wouldn’t work in a power outage if there isn’t an extra battery backup for the receiver.
Satellite
Satellite phones are also very common today and are mostly used by military or rescue services as they are able to work in every part of the world without any signal problems. Satellite phones send the voice signal directly to a satellite which then transmits this signal to the closest tower to a recipient and thus the recipient receives the voice. They are extremely reliable and work in any part of the world as mentioned before. However, these phones are expensive and a few minutes can cost quite a lot. That is why satellite phones are used by the military, wildlife officers, rescue services, and government agencies.
Cellular
The cellular system is the one that is mostly in use today. This is the technology that our mobile phones use. Cellular services use RF waves which are low-energy radio frequency waves that are transmitted from cell towers.
The voice captured in a cellphone is transmitted to a cell tower which through RF waves sends the signal with a unique code to all other cell towers in the recipient area and the tower to which the recipient’s device is connected to picks up that signal and establishes the connection between sender and receiver. This is an advanced system and through RF waves we are able to send GBs of data. However, in order to remain connected, a user always has to be in the range of these cell towers since this network works as a mesh so a user would be disconnected if they are not in the range of any cell tower. Plus it is also expensive as compared to a landline or VoIP service.
Conclusion
The voice transmission technique has come a long way from its earlier form. Today we have many different voice communication techniques like the ones mentioned above. All these medium of transmission techniques have their unique qualities ranging from cost-effectiveness, reliability, and portability. It depends on the user which technology they want to use based on the nature of communication and the device used.
