Electricity 1746 – 1945
| Year | Milestone | Person/ Organisation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1746 | Capacitor | Ewald Georg von Kleist | Leidner bottle for storing charges |
| 1780 | Galvanism | Luigi Galvani | Experiments with Frogs |
| 1800 | Electro Chemistry | Alessandro Volta | Development of a battery |
| 1820 | Elektro Magnetism | Hans Christian Oersted | Deflection of magnets by electricity |
| 1820 | Current Measurement | Andre Marie Ampere | Electromagnets |
| 1831 | Elektrodynamik, Induction | Michael Faraday | Transformer, Induction |
| 1833 | Telegraph | Carl Friedrich Gauß Wilhelm Weber | First electric communication |
| 1837 | First Telegraph line | Great Western Railway | |
| First (writing) Telegraph | Samuel Morse | ||
| 1846 | First Telegraph lines in Germany | ||
| 1847 | Founding Siemens Halske | Werner Siemens | Development of needle telegraphs |
| 1850 | Deutsch-Österreichischer Telegraphenverein DÖTV | First international Standardization. Morse Code is selected Standard in Germany. | |
| 1853 | L-C Circuit | Lord Kelvin | Electrical Oscillator: Inductivity, capacity and Frequency |
| 1856 | Telephone | Antonio Meucci | Most likely, first functional Telephone |
| 1861 | Telephone | Philipp Reis | Functional Telephone. The name Telephone was given by Reis. |
| 1864 | Postulate of electro-magnetic Waves | James Clerk Maxwell | Electro magnetic Wave Equation |
| 1865 | Founding: International Telecommunication Union ITU | First international standardization body | |
| 1874 | Semiconductor Effect | Ferdinand Braun | Electrical characteristics of crystals |
| 1876 | Founding: Ericsson | Lars Magnus Ericsson | |
| 1877 | Founding: Bell Telephone Company later AT&T | Alexander Graham Bell | |
| 1880 | Edison-Richardson-Effect | Thomas Edison | Glowing anodes are missing electrons in vacuum tubes. |
| 1881 | Stowger Switch | Almon Strowger | 1 – 100 mechanical switch for telephone lines |
| 1886 | Radio Waves | Heinrich Hertz | First Decovery of electromagnetic Waves |
| 1890 | Coherer | Eduard Branly | First practical detector for receiving electromagnetic waves |
| 1893 | Coherer Receiver | Alexander Stepanowitsch Popow | Used for detection of Lightnings |
| 1895 | Demonstration of electro magnetic Telegraphy | Oliver Lodge | Demonstration of a transmitter and a coherer receiver |
| 1896 | Wireless Telegraph | Guglielmo Marconi | Patent for Wireless Telegraph |
| 1897 | Founding: Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. | Guglielmo Marconi | |
| 1898 | Inductive Telegraf | Ferdinand Braun | |
| 1899 | Nickel Cadmium Akkumulator | Waldemar Jungner | First dry rechargeable battery |
| 1900 | Founding: Braun Telegraphie GmbH | Ferdinand Braun | |
| 1902 | Diode | John Flemming | First Diode using a vacuum tube |
| 1906 | „Internationale Funktelegrafie Konferenz“ in Berlin | First international conference for regulation of radio transmission. | |
| First radio broadcasting transmission | Reginald Fessenden | First transmission of speech and music using a rotary Spark-gap transmitter. | |
| Triode | Robert von Lieben, Lee de Forest | Independent development of an amplifying vacuum tube. Start of the Age of Electronics | |
| 1911 | Founding: Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. Later Motorola | Paul V. Galvin und Joseph E. Galvin | |
| 1913 | Meissner Circuit | Alexander Meißner | First generation of a continuous oscillation |
| 1918 | Superheterodyne receiver | Edwin Howard Armstrong | First tested on the Paris Eiffel Tower |
| 1923 | 2. American Radio Conference | 99 Radio frequencies assigned in 1000 kHz Band | |
| 1925 | European Radio Conference | 99 Radio frequencies for Europe | |
| 1934 | Founding: FCC | USA | Federal Communication Kommission |
| 1937 | First Two Way Radio | Donald Hings | Got the name „Walkie Talkie“ |
| 1940 | Handie Talkie SCR-536 | Motorola | First handheld Two Way Radio |
Pre-Cellular: 1945 – 1980
| Year | Milestone | Person/ Organisation | Description |
| 1946 | Mobile Telephone System (MTS) | Bell Labs | First Mobile Telephone System |
| 1947 | Invention Point Contact transistor | Bell Labs | First usable Transistor |
| First release of Bands for mobile telephony | FCC | ||
| 1952 | Founding: Texas Instruments | Company to develop industrial transistors | |
| 1954 | First Transistor Radio | Texas Instruments | Pocket size, battery operated AM Receiver using transistors |
| 1957 | Founding: Fairchild | William Shockley | First Semiconductors company |
| Sputnik | Sowjet Union | First orbiting satellite | |
| 1958 | „Öffentlich bewegter Landfunk“ (A-Netz) | Bundespost Germany | First Mobile-Phone System in Germany called A-Netz |
| 1959 | Founding: CEPT | Europe | First European organization for Postal Services including Telecommunication |
| 1960 | First integrated Circuit | Robert Noyce | Start of the Information Age |
| 1962 | T1 Carrier-PCM Codierung | Bell Labs | TDMA line with PCM coded speech data, 24 channels. Start of digital transmission of speech |
| IEEE | USA | Founding of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | |
| 1965 | IMTS | Bell Labs | First Mobile phone system with dialing |
| 1968 | Founding: Intel | Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore | Focus on creation of memory chips |
| 1969 | ARPANET | ARPA | First four knots of the ARPANET are going online |
| 1970 | OFDM | R.W. Chang Bell Labs | Patent for OFDM Modulation |
| 1971 | First Microprocessor | Intel | Integrated Circuits are getting programmable |
| First EPROM | Intel | First writeable Read Only Memory | |
| Erste E-Mail | ARPA | First E-Mail is transmitted via the ARPANET. | |
| 1972 | B-Netz | Bundespost TEKADE | First German Mobil phone system with dialing |
| 1975 | CCD Charged Coupled Devices | Fairchild | First 100×100 CCD Modul for a digital camera |
| 1976 | Standardization of C-Netz | Bundespost Siemens | First Cellular network called C-Netz in Germany |
1G: 1980 – 1990
| Year | Milestone | Person/ Organisation | Description |
| 1979 | NTT | First cellular network of the world launched in Japan | |
| 900 MHz Bands | Europe | Release of new Frequency bands for a future mobile cellular system (became 2G) | |
| Founding: VLSI Technologies | USA | Semiconductor Manufacturer specialized on ASICs | |
| 1981 | NMT | Skandinavia | First cellular mobile network in Skandinavia |
| Founding: Racal Telecom | UK | First European mobile network provider. Became Vodafone | |
| Founding: British Telecom | UK | British Telecom, through privatization of UK PTT Services | |
| 1982 | First Digital Signal Processor | Texas Instruments | TMS320 10, first digital signal processor on the market. |
| Founding: GSM | CEPT | Founding of the Group Special Mobile to define a new 2G mobile phone standard | |
| 1983 | AMPS | USA | First American cellular Network |
| Ethernet | IEEE | Standardization of the Ethernets 802.3 | |
| TCP/IP | TCP/IP becomes standard protocol for the Internet | ||
| 1984 | DynaTEC | Motorola | First handheld cellular mobile phone for AMPS |
| Founding: „Baby-Bells“ | AT&T | AT&T loses Telecom Monopol As a result smaller Bell companies are founded. The „Baby Bells“ | |
| 1985 | Launch C-Netz | Bundespost | First German cellular mobile phone system |
| Launch TACS | UK | First cellular mobile phone system in the UK (based on AMPS) | |
| Domain Names | Internet | Introduction of Domain Names instead of internet addresses. | |
| Founding: Qualcomm | Irvin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi | Development of a CDMA based cellular phone system Aufbau eines CDMA basierten Mobilfunksystems | |
| Founding: Cisco | Company to build internet router | ||
| 1986 | Founding: Alcatel | ITT | ITT sold his European Telecom Business to CGE. This results in Alcatel. |
| Sprach-Kodierung | Manfred Schroeder, Bishnu Atal | Development of the CELP Coder | |
| 1987 | GSM Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) | CEPT | Agreement of European countries on a Pan European digital mobile standard called GSM |
| 1988 | Founding: ETSI | CEPT | Founding of the first European Standardization Body. |
| TIA | USA | Founding of the first American Standardization Body. | |
| Liberalization telecom market | Bundespost | The German PTT is split up and privatized | |
| TAT-8 | AT&T BT | First transatlantic Fiber cable | |
| 1989 | First GSM licenses | Bundespost | Deutsche Telecom and Mannesmann Mobilfunk receive the first German GSM Licenses |
2G: 1990 – 2000
| Year | Milestone | Person/ Organisation | Description |
| 1990 | IS-54 D-AMPS | TIA | First 2G Standard in the USA |
| Start of the commercial internet | USA | Release of the ARPANET for the broad public | |
| First Web Page | Berners-Lee | HTML und HTTP are introduced | |
| 1990 | GSM Release | ETSI | GSM Standard frozen (released) |
| 1991 | DCS 1800 | ETSI | Extension of GSM for 1800 MHz |
| Founding: Iridium | Motorola | Company for the development of a satellite based digital communication system | |
| 1992 | GSM network start | ETSI | Europa start first GSM Networks |
| 1993 | IS-54 network start | TIA | USA start the first digital AMPS, IS-54 Network |
| 1994 | DCS 1800 network start | Europa | E.g. start of the „E-Netz“ in Germany |
| MP3 | Fraunhofer Society | Release of the MP3 Coding-Standard. Start of a music industry revolution | |
| 1995 | Digital Audio Broadcast DAB | ETSI | Digital Audio Broadcast, first OFDM based Standard. |
| PCS 1900 | FCC | Start of Personal Communication Service in den USA in the 1900MHz Band | |
| IS-95 CDMAOne | Qualcomm | Release of Qualcomm CDMAOne Standard | |
| 1996 | Founding: Lucent Technologies | AT&T | Spin Out of the development organization and Bell Labs from AT&T |
| USB Universal Serial Bus | Intel | First USB Interface are introduced by Intel. | |
| 1997 | Bluetooth | Ericsson et al | Introduction of a digital Personal Area Network Standard. |
| WLAN 802.11 | IEEE | First standard for WLAN | |
| Color Display | Siemens | First color display in a handheld | |
| 1998 | Start Iridium | Motorola | Start of the first satellite communication system |
| Start Globalstar | Qualcomm | Second satellite communication system CDMA basiert | |
| Founding: 3GPP | Founding of a new global organization for the standardization of digital cellular systems. | ||
| 1999 | Iridium Bancruptcy | ||
| First mobile phone with integrate camera | Kyocera | ||
| UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System | 3GPP | Release 99, first 3G Standard also known as Wideband-CDMA | |
| WLAN 802.11 b, 802.11 a | IEEE | Release of 11 Mbit/s and 54 MBit/s Standard. | |
| 2000 | Founding: Verizon Wireless | USA | Created from Vodafone Airtouch |
| USB2.0 | Daten rates of 480 Mbit/s |
2.5G – 3G: 2000 – 2010
| Year | Milestone | Person Organization | Description |
| 2000 | 1xRTT | 3GPP2 | First 3G Version of Qualcomm CDMA2000 specified |
| 2001 | GPRS | 3GPP | Start of the first GPRS Networks |
| W-CDMA | NTT Docomo | Start of W-CDMA Service in Japan | |
| HSDPA | 3GPP | Specification of Hi Speed Downlink Packet Access | |
| 2002 | 1xRTT | Start of 1xRTT Packet Switched Data in Korea | |
| 2003 | EDGE | 3GPP | Improvement of GPRS, Introduction in den USA |
| WLAN 802.11 g | IEEE | High speed WLAN on 2.4 MHz Band |