telecommunications media

technology

Written by

Alfred O. Hero

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

History

telecommunications media, equipment and systems—metal wire, terrestrial and satellite radio, and optical fibre—employed in the transmission of electromagnetic signals, facilitating mass communication and mass media. Every telecommunications system involves the transmission of an information-bearing electromagnetic signal through a physical medium that separates the transmitter from the receiver. All transmitted signals are to some extent degraded by the environment through which they propagate. Signal degradation can take many forms, but generally it falls into three types:...