Map of Remikra, Present
Article Written: 8 September 1456
Combria
Very few people seem to know about the origin of telephone technology in Circlaria, but the first system was implemented in Combria. That system featured a private line between the House of Masons in Jestopole and the House of Commerce in South Masonia. It was experimental and was used exclusively between the two locations. Each end of this line was in the form of a giant sound shell inside a designated operating room with equipment to make and maintain a stable connection. Due to the complicated mechanisms and coordinations involved, an appointment had to be made in advance between the two parties in order to make the call. The first call with this specific system was made on 1 October 1089.
The 1089 Telephone Experiment proved a success; and President William Jeson of Combria wasted no time establishing a public telephone system. By 1095, each neighborhood block in nearly every city and town had its own telephone house. Each telephone house had an operating room on its top level and a grid of sound-proof telephone booths on its lower level. Like with the 1089 Telephone Experiment, appointments had to be made in advance between two parties as booth numbers and time windows were assigned.
By 1101, each household had its own single phone booth enclosed in a telephone shack either in its backyard or on its rooftop. Landlines were developed to connect these telephone shacks to nearby telephone houses, which were connected to other telephone houses via their own landlines. Appointments had to be made in advance between both parties like before; and a caller usually passed between one and three operators at their respective telephone houses before finally connecting to the desired party.
A new generation of telephones went public in the 1110s, as these phones were smaller and were built into new communication rooms within residential homes and flats. These phones were revolutionary as they contained ear and speaker pieces as opposed to large sound shells. In such communication rooms, these phones stood alongside stationery desks and ticker-text machines, a new invention to replace the old signal code machines. These phones connected by landlines to the telephone houses while appointments and arrangements still had to be made. However, the size advantage ultimately made these arrangements easier.
These phones were replaced by what are known today as early house telephones, which came out in the 1120s. Early house telephones were smaller than their predecessors, and became commonplace in areas such as kitchens and living rooms. The array of landline and telephone house operators was the same, but, with the advent of signal bells on these new phones, appointments no longer had to be made between the two calling parties. The job of the telephone house operator was rendered obsolete by the arrival of the numerical dialer in the 1130s because of how it enabled one party to directly dial another.
The next eighty years saw political turmoil and little progress in terms of communication technology. However, new revolutionary technologies took center stage when Combria began to rebound. In the 1210s, telephone towers enabled telephone houses to connect to each other without the use of landlines. Although private residences still connected to telephone houses via landlines, the overall system improved in terms of efficiency.
It was not long, however, before private residences had their own telephone towers. Also known as yard towers, these telephone towers came around in the 1220s, and were connected to house telephones by short cables. Situated on rooftops and in backyards, these yard towers beamed signals to telephone house towers, which would relay signals to other telephone house towers (if a long-distance call), where the signal would be relayed to the yard tower of the desired party. In the 1230s, yard towers were able to beam directly to each other, rendering telephone houses obsolete.
The Early Republic
In the 1250s, the House of Masons developed radio port telephones as part of a commercial contract with the Edoran Regiondom in the Great North. The design of the radio port telephone involved a phone connected to a small radio port via a special cable. This device was powered by electricity flowing through a cable from a wall plug; and the radio port served the same purpose as the yard tower. Owing to political resentment against the Kontacet family at the time, radio port phones were slow to catch in the Middle Remikran markets; so this invention became more popular in Canticula, Tandeiyah, and the Great North.
Then, in the 1260s, came the carrier phones. A carrier phone was a small, battery-powered, singular device combining the telephone and port into one. The carrier phone was developed by the House of Masons, but was patented by the Edoran Regiondom and first released in the Great North. Carrier phones spread to Tandeiyah and Canticula in 1264, during which a select group in the Basin District was invited to try the new invention. In 1266, the carrier phone was finally released publicly in the Federal Estates of Retun as the Combrian Telephone System integrated with the Retunian government and became re-established as the Retunian Carrier Phone System. In 1272, the Retunian Carrier Phone System established its first consistent international network with the carrier phone system of the Acrean Kingdom. And over the course of ninety years, the Retunian Carrier Phone System would set up international connections with numerous other nations and entities.
OCEA
In 1301, the Retunian government registered with the Occupational and Communication Engineers Association, an international organization dedicated to the facilitation of global communications. A revolutionary perk to OCEA was the ability of people and entities to create remote accounts and exchange digital messages as well as make instant publications on virtual bulletins. In the 1350s, OCEA released the OCEA Personal Occupational Device, or the OPOD. The OPOD featured a small sphere-like device that would project holographic interfaces. The OPOD contained all of OCEA user functions and purposes, and, furthermore, enabled telephone and video telecommunications. The Great North began distributing the OPOD in the 1360s, and the Independent Commonwealth State of Retun established its first OPOD infrastructure in 1369.