The Past, Present and Future of Telecommunications Expansion: A Historical Perspective

This chapter will look into the detail of the technologies, new at the time, that made every step in the evolution of communications and later wireless networks possible, the way in which these networks were commercially implemented and deployed and how they evolved over time, as well the services that each step in the evolution enabled. Some of the key aspects that brought about the vision of 6G already introduced in Chap. 1 will be elaborated on, based on these historical findings. Note that 5G networks, although already in the process of deployment at the time of writing of this book, are still expected to evolve over the next ten years and thus some predictions and assumptions regarding 5G will also be made.