​[Editor's Note] The history of communication is the history of human's ceaseless efforts to connect. Since prehistoric times, the function of communication has served as a means of communication and promise for humans, who are social animals. In Korea, telecommunications was first introduced in 1888 during the Joseon Dynasty, and the information age began in the 1980s after liberation with the rapid development of communication businesses and technology. Now, as we enter the 5G and 6G eras, we are looking at satellite communication and quantum communication, which are considered the next-generation communication. With the development of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robots, cloud, and UAM, communication is becoming increasingly important and is expected to continue to develop endlessly. Communication is the most basic and core technology that spans almost all fields. Through this series, our magazine will cover various aspects related to communication, from the history of communication to minor events, technologies, and trends.

■ The phone called a brick

In the early 1970s, when even the colors of telephones were the same, it is said that the price of one telephone was more expensive than a 50-pyeong apartment in Seoul. Back then, the old analog telephones required you to dial a phone number by turning a number pad with numbers from 1 to 0. The telephone cord was twisted like a pig's tail to compensate for the strong noise.

In the drama series 'Reply' directed by Shin Won-ho, it is fun to see the history of telephones over time by implementing props from the time period well. In the 1988 series, a rotary landline telephone and a square push-button telephone appear. In addition to landline telephones, there are also household cordless telephones, which were only seen in some homes like Jeong-hwan's.

Samsung launched the SH-100, the first domestic mobile phone, in 1988. It weighed 800g, was 40cm long including the antenna, and cost 1.8 million won. Considering that the price of a passenger car at the time was around 4 million won, you can see how valuable the mobile phone was.

This phone was also called a refrigerator phone or a brick phone because it was as big and heavy as a brick. Sometimes, when a smartphone is old or dead, we disparage it by calling it a brick phone, but at the time, a brick phone was a symbol of wealth.

Before Samsung's launch, the world's first mobile phone, the Motorola DynaTAC, was also released in 1983, but it was not widely used due to its initial high price. Motorola first released the DynaTAC8000SL in Korea in 1987, at a price of 2.4 million won.
Cell phones gradually began to become popular after the brick phone era. From the early 'walkie-talkie' and 'handy-talkie' radios, wireless mobile communication devices such as car phones, city phones, mobile phones, and smartphones began to develop in modern times.

In particular, the '1st generation (1G)' mobile communication technology standard designated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) began in earnest with the vehicle phone service (car phone) of Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service in 1984. The first domestically produced car phone was Samsung's SC-1000A, priced at around 1 million won.

'1G (1980s-1990s)' refers to the period from 1984, when mobile communication services were first introduced to general subscribers, to the early 1990s, when communication service infrastructure was established.

In March 1984, Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service Corporation was established, forming a monopoly in the market and having very few subscribers. Korea Mobile Telecom, a subsidiary of Korea Telecom Corporation, has launched a vehicle phone service and is providing an analog cellular service called 'AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service)' in the metropolitan area including Seoul, Anyang, and Suwon.

In addition, mobile phone service developed significantly in the wake of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and through continuous infrastructure construction, service was available in all 74 cities nationwide, towns, and areas near adjacent highways by the end of 1993. Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service changed its name to SK Telecom.

■ Development of scientific communication, opening the information age

The combination of telecommunications technology and computer processing technology became the foundation of the information age. As radio waves began to be used for communication in earnest, people were freed from the constraints of time and place. The era of 'mobile', which people could carry and use, was opened.

The era of wireless communication began when Italian scientist GM Marconi successfully transmitted Morse code over a distance of 2.8 km in 1895, and the concept of information and communication became concrete in 1906 when Canadian scientist Reginald Aubrey Fessenden successfully conducted an experiment to transmit voice using radio waves.

The development project for the electronic switching system, which was promoted in the 1980s, became a major catalyst for the development of Korea's telecommunications industry. In particular, the Korea Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) was the main developer, and a total of 24 billion won in research expenses and 1,300 personnel were invested. ETRI developed TDX, semiconductors (DRAM), digital mobile communication systems (CDMA), and mobile Internet (WiBro). 'TDX' is the technology that made the 'one telephone per household' era a reality in our country, and research continued until 1993. TDX contributed greatly to solving the chronic telephone congestion in Korea. It is called 'switching' technology, which refers to a switching system that automatically connects calls without the help of an operator. Regarding this technology, which allowed the telephone to be reborn as a means of communication for the general public, ETRI said that it was the largest project since the establishment of the research institute, and later called it 'the largest R&D project since Dangun'.

The nationwide telephone system was fully automated, and the long-standing problem of poor quality telephones was solved. Based on this, the total number of telephone lines supplied exceeded 10 million in 1987. ETRI researchers at the time said, “TDX’s technological development know-how was the impetus for the creation of semiconductors, supercomputers, and CDMA.”

The 1980s was a time when other communication services besides telephones were expanded as the framework for a full-scale telecommunications business was established. For example, new basic telecommunications services such as paging in 1982, data communication in 1984, and mobile telephones in 1988 were introduced.

After the introduction of value-added communication services such as data networks in 1984 and value-added networks (VANs) in 1987, color TV broadcasting began in the broadcasting service sector, and voice multiplexing was implemented in 1985. After the 1980s, the information and communication industry showed rapid growth from the 1990s.

The next part will cover the history of communications from the first generation of mobile communications to 5G.