Industrial IT and telecommunications: converging fields continue to spark changes.

• Author: Reed, Anne
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Telecom & Technology

The world is changing at an incredible rate. This is truly evident in the fields of information technology and telecommunications. The rate of change has actually created new "laws" in the IT field, including Moore's Law: "The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years." In telecommunications, the rate of change can be observed in the continuous roll out of more advanced wireless technologies--LTE, 4G; 3G; 802.11b, g, and n (Wi-Fi)--to carry data and voice over long distances. As all these changes are occurring, the two fields are converging their technologies. How did this come about?

According to industry guru Harry Newton, IT is "a fancy name for data processing, which became management information systems, which became information technology."

IT covers all the equipment, network, processes, procedures and systems used to provide and support information systems both manual and computerized. The general populace most often uses IT to refer to the data processing department in a company. This department employs individuals that understand computers, communications between computers, and sometimes they actually write software. Virtually all electronic IT is currently networked. IT departments today generally control their company's data telecommunications experience.

Early Industry

Telecommunications began with Alexander Bell's invention of the telephone in 1876. The science of translating sound into electrical signals, transmitting them and then converting them back to sound is referred to as telephony. Telephony has evolved over time from basic telephone systems to telephony software. Telephone companies have evolved from basic telephone service to offering communication options for telephones (voice mail, conference calling, call forwarding--to name a few), Internet options (Internet access, email, web hosting), and telecommunications services (MPLS, hosted services, TLS, WAN optimization).

As the telephone industry offered more services, it incorporated the term telecommunications into its vocabulary to cover the added capabilities. Telecommunications is generally defined as "the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate.... Telecommunications now also includes the use of electrical devices such as the telegraph, telephone and teleprinter, as well as the use of radio and microwave communications, as well as fiber optics and their...