As we stand at the beginning of the 21st century, there are four main trends that are shaping the world of telecommunications, media and entertainment.
Those trends are digitalisation, convergence, fragmenting audiences and the growth of the internet.
In 1891 The General Post Office's original cable ship, H.M.T.S. Monarch (the first of several cable ships of that name), laid the first submarine telephone cable between England and France, enabling telephone conversations between specially equipped booths in London and Paris.
The London-Paris telephone service was inaugurated in April of that year and was controlled and worked from the Central Telegraph Office in London.
Achieving telephone communication across the Atlantic was not as simple as just laying a cable. The voltages involved in telephone calls were too low to be passed though such a long cable and there was no known technology for repeater amplifiers that would work underwater. It required the invention of wireless to provide telephone links across the oceans.
Bell System engineers achieved the first voice transmission across the Atlantic, connecting Virginia and Paris briefly in 1915. A year later they held the first two-way conversation with a ship at sea. However, these were just experimental demonstrations.
It took 50 years from the invention of the telephone to make transatlantic phone calls.
In 1926 Bell Laboratories and the British Post Office engineered the first two-way conversation across the Atlantic.
On January 7, 1927, a commercial telephone service (using radio) began between New York and London. Over the next few years the service spread throughout North America and Europe.
It was almost 100 years from the birth of the telephone before users were able to dial direct to other countries. International Direct Dialling (IDD) was first introduced in the UK in 1963, between London and Paris. The next year, IDD was extended to Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. By that time, the range of IDD destinations covered most of Western Europe.
Dialling direct to the USA didn't arrive until 1970 (London-New York), again extended the following year to the major British centres and almost the whole of the mainland USA. By 1980 IDD was available to over 90% of UK phone customers and reached over 87 overseas countries.
Now, there are very few overseas phone calls that have to be placed via an operator. Meanwhile, the cost of calling overseas has tumbled. In 1966 it cost around £3 to call New York for three minutes - equivalent to around £5 per minute in today's prices. The current rate is around 4p per minute.
An advert made in the 1980s to inform customers about the International Direct Dialling service.
Compared to the bother of dialling through the operator for an international call and sometimes having to wait for them to get back in touch when lines were available - International Direct Dialling was a wonderful benefit to business and families across the ocean.
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