How did people connect to others in the early days of telephones by talking to operators?
436654
LA_Kinda_Guy beat me to this one.\n\nBack in the day, operators used 'exchanges'.  Each exchange was generally named after the area it covered.  As an example, my Grandparents used to live on Linda Drive in Amarillo, TX.  This was designated the 'Fleetwood' exchange due to its proximity to Fleetwood Park.  Apparently, these aren't all that far gone (in use as recently as the early 1960s), as I remember my Grandmother giving the phone number to the school I went to as 'Fleetwood-54987'.\n\nWhen the switchboards became automated, people began dialing the first two letters of the exchange as well as the number.  In the case of my Grandparents, their number became 355-4987.  If you look at the letters on a phone dial, F is on the 3, and L is on the 5.\n\nOn a humorous side-note, my Grandmother often grumbled about wishing it would go back to the old system due to the flood of wrong numbers we'd get anytime one of the local radio stations would have a call-in contest.  Their number was 359-4987, which sounded the same as my Grandparents number when said quickly.
1017769
You can connect to someone directly by typing in their IP address.  If they have a static IP, its great, but if its dynamic, you have to get them to email it to you, or email yours to them.  \n\nThe directory server that come with the program doesn't work, but there are servers that do.  You don't need a directory server if you use the IP (ie-123.234.255.1).\n\nYou are better off trashing it and going with FreeWorldDialup.com and downloading SJPhone.  Works great and you can dial 1-800 numbers with it.  They give you a free number for incoming calls too.
1019671
Isn't that rude? I think that the very concept behind cell phones is to be as connected as possible, and I guess that means calling someone AS SOON AS YOU CAN!
1135512
Talk on the cell phone
403714
Ask who really invented the telephone, and you may get the name of a German, Philipp Reis, not Alexander Graham Bell. \n\nReis was a 26-year-old science teacher when he began work on the telephone in 1860. His essential idea came from a paper by a French investigator named Bourseul. In 1854 Bourseul had explained how to transmit speech electrically. He wrote: \n\nSpeak against one diaphragm and let each vibration "make or break" the electric contact. The electric pulsations thereby produced will set the other diaphragm working, and [it then reproduces] the transmitted sound. \n\nConcept might be from Philipp Reis in 1860.\nAn invented telephone was from Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.
859272
By communcating properly
516128
Here is some information from wiki about security:\n\nEarly mobile phones did not have much security designed in. Some problems with these models were "cloning", a variant of identity theft, and "scanning" whereby third parties in the local area could intercept and eavesdrop in on calls. Analogue phones could also be listened to on some radio scanners.\n\nAlthough more recent digital systems (such as GSM) have attempted to address these fundamental issues, security problems continue to persist. Vulnerabilities (such as SMS spoofing) have been found in many current protocols that continue to allow the possibility of eavesdropping or cloning.
458963
If you dial zero for an operator, tell them you're having trouble placing a call, and give them the number; they will place the call for you free of charge.\n\nIf you ask them to look up a number, they will refer you to information and you will have to pay.
1001581
Try the phone company website or governing body website.
1893
How about talking to each other?
976373
History of telecommunication\n\nThe history of telecommunication began with the use of smoke signals and drums in Africa, the Americas and parts of Asia. In the 1790's the first fixed semaphore systems emerged in Europe however it was not until the 1830's that electrical telecommunication systems started to appear. This article details the history of telecommunication and the individuals who helped make telecommunication systems what they are today.\n\nEarly telecommunications\nEarly forms of telecommunication include smoke signals and drums. Drums were used by natives in Africa, New Guinea and South America whereas smoke signals were used by natives in North America and China. Contrary to what one might think, these systems were often used to do more than merely announce the presence of a camp.[1][2]\n\nIn 1792, a French engineer, Claude Chappe built the first visual telegraphy (or semaphore) system between Lille and Paris. This was followed by a line from Strasbourg to Paris. In 1794, a Swedish engineer, Abraham Edelcrantz built a quite different system from Stockholm to Drottningholm. As opposed to Chappe's system which involved pulleys rotating beams of wood, Edelcrantz's system relied only upon shutters and was therefore faster.[3] However semaphore as a communication system suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers often at intervals of only ten to thirty kilometres (six to nineteen miles). As a result, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880\n\nTelegraph and telephone\nThe first commercial electrical telegraph was constructed by Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke. It used the deflection of needles to represent messages and started operating over twenty-one kilometres (thirteen miles) of the Great Western Railway on 9 April 1839. Both Wheatstone and Cooke viewed their device as "an improvement to the [existing] electromagnetic telegraph" not as a new device.\n\nOn the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837. Soon after he was joined by Alfred Vail who developed the register — a telegraph terminal that integrated a logging device for recording messages to paper tape. This was demonstrated successfully over three miles (five kilometres) on 6 January 1838 and eventually over forty miles (sixty-four kilometres) between Washington, DC and Baltimore on 24 May 1844. The patented invention proved lucrative and by 1851 telegraph lines in the United States spanned over 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometres).[5]\n\nThe first successful transatlantic telegraph cable was completed on 27 July 1866, allowing transatlantic telecommunication for the first time. Earlier transatlantic cables installed in 1857 and 1858 only operated for a few days or weeks before they failed.[6]\n\nThe conventional telephone was invented by Alexander Bell in 1876. Although in 1849 Antonio Meucci invented a device that allowed the electrical transmission of voice over a line. Meucci's device depended upon the electrophonic effect and was of little practical value because it required users to place the receiver in their mouth to “hear” what was being said.[7]\n\nThe first commercial telephone services were set-up in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London. Bell held patents needed for such services in both countries. The technology grew quickly from this point, with inter-city lines being built and telephone exchanges in every major city of the United States by the mid-1880's.[8][9] Despite this, transatlantic voice communication remained impossible for customers until January 7, 1927 when a connection was established using radio. However no cable connection existed until TAT-1 was inaugurated on September 25, 1956 providing 36 telephone circuits\n\nRadio and television\nIn 1832, James Lindsay gave a classroom
713591
1. The first main competitor to BT following Thatcher's opening up of the telecomms industry to competition was Mercury. Mercury was soon swallowed by Cable & Wireless. C&W soon fell behind cable providers, such as NTL and Telewest. Basically that's the situation today.\n \n2. There are players in the market that use BT lines, but at cheaper rates. One of them is Onetel.\n\n3. BT's main competitor in the public payphone market was Mercury, but after its demise, a succession of companies led by Interphone tried to establish themselves, but failed as a result of the increasing use of mobile phones.
133533
Callwave \nPlus some phone companys now have this feature!
119178
There was a previous generation or two of mobile phones before the cellular phones we know have. Cellular phones were developed to increase the capacity of the system, since there was not enough bandwidth available to give service to everyone who might want it.\n\nIt is hard to say who first invented the mobile phone. It is a matter of definition, since it overlaps with the invention of radio, depending on how you define a phone. \nSome claim that the dentist Mahon Loomis of Virginia transmitted radio signals first in 1865. David Hughes in 1879 demonstrated what might be the first radio telephone. \n\nThere is a lot more information in the references. I am not sure where you draw the line exactly and say, THIS was the first mobile phone. \n\nWas it Bell Labs in 1924, in their first two war car radio phone? Or was it not until 1947, when commercial systems were available? Or Motorolla's Martin Cooper, who made a famous phone call on a portable cell phone to his rival  at Bell Labs in 1973?
721698
You can setup some voip gateway or proxy (Asterisk or SER/OpenSER) and a billing system. then you can register clients and allow them to call anywhere using soft phone. and bill them using cdrs. If you need further info contact me at asterisk.expert@yahoo.com
8730
Your question doesn't exactly have one answer.  Dial-up was massively introduced about 10 years ago.  However, the earliest recorded use of communication between computers through a data line began in the 1950s.  Joseph Licklider was actually one of the pioneers for global connectivity.  He was considered an expert in "artificial intelligence."    Google Mr. Licklider and you'll get more information on his contributions to dial-up networking.
142015
I think quite a bit about it.  I use it here in the house to provide 6 handsets and three lines out.(2 VOIP 1 landline).  I run it all via an asterisk server.  In the year or so that I have been doing this, I have had a few problems but nothing that was hard to fix. Besides, I like to be able to set what hours people can call me or if they can call me (based on caller id)