The ability to communicate over distance has long been part of human history. The earliest primitive methods such as beating drums led to optical telegraphy using smoke signals, beacons of light and flags.Over the last hundred years or more telephones have become an important part of many people’s daily lives. There are now four main types of phone or phone-like devices available; landline telephones, mobile phones Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones and for the people who are in the forest areas-the satellite phone. Each of these has come onto the market at a different moment in time, and they have all developed (and continue to do so) throughout their existence. 

When a person speaks into a telephone the sound waves created by his/her voice enters the mouthpiece of the phone. An electric current carries the sound to the telephone of the person listening. A telephone has two main parts: (1) the transmitter and (2) the receiver. The Transmitter of a telephone serves as a sensitive “electric ear.” It lies behind the mouthpiece of the phone. The eardrum of the telephone is a thin, round metal disk called a diaphragm. When a person talks into the telephone, the sound waves strike the diaphragm and make it vibrate. The diaphragm vibrates at various speeds, depending on the variations in air pressure caused by the varying tones of the speaker’s voice.

The Receiver serves as an “electric mouth.” Like a human voice, it has “vocal cords.” The vocal cords of the receiver are a diaphragm. Two magnets located at the edge of the diaphragm cause it to vibrate. One of the magnets is a permanent magnet that constantly holds the diaphragm close to it. The other magnet is an electromagnet. It consists of a piece of iron with a coil of wire wound around it. When an electric current passes through the coil, the iron core becomes magnetized. The diaphragm is pulled toward the iron core and away from the permanent magnet. The pull of the electromagnet varies between strong and weak, depending on the variations in the current. Thus, the electromagnet controls the vibrations of the diaphragm in the receiver.

The traditional landline telephone has been around in some form since 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell first got a patent for an electrical phone. The technology had been developing previous to this, but 1876 was really the beginning of the telephone.

Landline Telephones
Plain old telephone service (POTS), A phone system is connected by shielded wires that connect the entire network. Landline phones have a microphone and speaker like all telephone devises. This speaker allows the user to hear what the person they are communicating with is saying, while the microphone allows the users voice to be transmitted to the other end of the line. In the past it was necessary to call an operator, as the technology was not advanced enough for users to directly call each other. You would phone an operator stating who you would like to talk to, and they would then connect
Mobile/Smartphones Phones
Mobile Phones (also referred to as Cell Phones) are phones that are, as the name suggests, mobile, and do not have to be physically connected to a telephone line. It works by sending radio waves. The progression towards some sort of radio wave technology had been experimented with since the 1940’s. The first device that really resembled a mobile phone wasn’t until 1979 though, in Japan. The technology greatly expanded during the 1980’s. Their mainstream popularity really took off in the mid 1990’s and from the late 90’s to the early 2000’s they had a major impact.
With a mobile phone you can do a lot more than make calls. The first text message was sent in 1992, and the technology available within the small mobile phone device has expanded ever since. The smart phone can (to some extent) replace a computer with its many features.
VoIP Phones
VoIP is voice communication over the internet. The signal travels over a broadband connection, and is much like email but with voices.
VoIP has a reputation of being poor in quality. It is, though, improving all the time. It is dependent on the quality of the internet connection, which is the reason why the quality varies. The most common form of VoIP is to use a computer with a microphone and speakers. There are now VoIP phones on the market though, that look just like regular telephones. To the user they work in the same way, just with different technology. With some VoIP Providers it is now possible to use it as the main home telephone or as a Business VoIP solution.
A satellite phone or sat-phone is a mobile phone that sends and receives calls using satellites rather than landlines or cellular broadcasting towers. This phone only requires a clear line of sight to the sky, so it can complete calls from anywhere. One can operate in the middle of the Sahara desert, at the top of Mount Everest, or from a clearing deep within a South African jungle. It is an indispensable tool for remote excursions of all kinds, and provides solid communication on the seas and in the air.
A disadvantage of a satellite phone is a noticeable delay in conversations. The signal must first travel to the satellite, then to an earthbound gateway before being routed to the receiver. The receiver’s response will follow the same path in reverse, taking equally long to reach the caller. Satellite minutes are also more expensive than cellular minutes.
More People Have Cell Phones than washrooms

Out of the world’s estimated 7 billion people, approximately 6 billion have access to mobile phones. Only 4.5 billion have access to working toilets. Last August, Bill Gates (founder and Technology adviser of Microsoft) launched the “Reinvent the Toilet” campaign to reduce the number of children who die as a result of sanitation problems.

How Many Phone Calls Are Made Each Day?
There is no one answer to this question. Even an average would have little meaning with the vast amount of variables around the world effecting call traffic, such as holidays & events. The exact number varies according to the statistical information. Most records indicate that people make billions of phone calls on a daily basis.

Telephone in Guyana
On June 18, 1990, the Government of Guyana (GOG) and Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) signed an agreement under which ATN agreed to purchase from Government 80% of the issued share capital of a new private limited liability company. January 28th 1991 the new private sector company, GT&T, commenced operations under new management as a subsidiary of ATN. Emerging February 14th 2006, Digicel-Guyana started telecommunication using mainly mobile phones. Digicel Business further cemented its position lately as a Microsoft Strategic Services Provider. So, it’s all in your hands-“the bigger better network” or the “best network strongest signal”.