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7 Answers

Is there a link between telephones and computers?

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I am asking a very abstract question. So, I hope you wouldn’t mind.

Is there a direct connection between computer technology and telecommunications technology?

For example, is there a link between topics concerning networking, tcp/ip, domain conrollers, etc and topics relating to telecommunications, GPRS, telephones, cell phones etc?

Or are they just 2 different issues brought to work together?

I hope you know what I am asking. Thanks.
Likewise, is the Internet a computer network being made to work on telephone network?

7 Answers



  1. danuitti on Jan 09, 2012

    Bell Labs did a great deal of work in the development computers, so they could make more efficient telephone switching networks.

    Let’s see. I worked on some tele-communications software for the Stock Market years ago. This was Voice and Data with the hooks for Video. This was CDMA stuff, as well as TCP/IP and other protocols. We were mixing and matching protocols with the same software and computers, as if we were proving that any darn thing would work. (This was in the mid 1980s). I thought that the Thin Net stuff was pretty cool, but THICK NET was out of this world. Like… why would you need it that fast?



  2. Blim F on Jan 09, 2012

    Yes, they’re called "Modems"



  3. geek49203 on Jan 09, 2012

    Only the fact that modern network routing got its start in telco routing. And that computers are less about stand-alone abilities and more about hooking into the Internet which, of course, it a telco deal.

    It’s like asking the chicken and egg question.



  4. Linuxiac on Jan 09, 2012

    Yes, and no.

    They are intertwined.

    I hope you know what I am writing… you’re welcome.



  5. MexicanCurious on Jan 09, 2012

    well, there is history behind the networking…

    a long time ago someone thought of connecting two computers together, that was the time of the mainframes and the terminals, back then, there was a choice of running a cable line from one place to the other or trying to use the existing telephone lines… the problem is the telephone lines operate at a certain voltage to be effective, and the computers use lower voltage, so they decided to do this: to modulate the computer signals with a carrier sound, and then have a machine on the other side to demodulate the computer signal from the sound, from this process of MOdulation and DEModulation, the MoDems were born, one on one side and one on the other… actually that is how the faxes work… and then the Internet, many people still have dial-up connections to the Internet using the built in modems…

    does that help you?

    or you question goes more towards VoIP ? where there are telephone lines that work over the Internet ?



  6. Jeff on Jan 09, 2012

    i think the telephones just one of many possibility media for computer to transfer data, other like infra red or wireless frequency devices are quite common to use nowadays as well.

    the issue i think related to find a better, efficient, more reliable and secure media to transfer data as well as can handle growing in data size



  7. ITConsultant on Jan 09, 2012

    These two things, as far as I know have been intersecting (computers and voice communication, as in landline phones) ever since the appearance of VoIP technology.
    VoIP is short for Voice over IP. IP is Internet Protocol and it’s part of the stack of protocols, with TCP, which makes the "backbone" of the Internet.

    With VoIP the IP addresses (such as 64.34.23.130) for computers connected to the Internet function as the "number" which needs to be "dialed" to reach that specific computer. Now VoIP companies sell hardware also, like phones that you plug into the computer, but their function, as far as I know, is to be more "friendly" to the user, compared to a regular headphone, and a computer microphone.
    These VoIP companies provide a central place where the voice data that you are sending through the internet, can be forwarded to a landline. So basically you can use your computer to call a landline.

    With cell technology: Most cellular providers offer also Internet for their users with "smarter" phones. These phones can connect to the internet through the cell towers. The users can install VoIP-like software (like Skype mobile) on their mobile phones with which a user can eventually call a landline number through the Internet on their cell phone without using their cell minutes. I said "VoIP-like" above since I’m not sure that the cellular Internet connection provides an IP address to each phone.
    Since with cell phones you can call land lines, there’s already an interface betweeen these two very different telecommunication technologies. You can use cell phones connected to a computer, to dial the same number that a regular computer using a modem dials, to reach the ISP.

    Hopefully my answer was fairly clear. I might have missed some things, either because I forgot, or because I am not that much into these technologies.

    PS: Of course the MoDems also which were mentioned before me, but I assumed you are aware of that based on the level of your question.

    PS2: Yes, Internet does go through the telephone network, but not on a very "deep" manner. What I mean is that telephone lines are used using modems on both the user and the ISP(internet Service Provider) end to connect each other, and ultimatelly to the internet.


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