Telephone was more an evolutionary development, rather than the work of a single Genius, as is popularly conceived. Each new development brought an added feature, or corrected a flaw. Since 1875 when the first workable telephone was developed, telephones have evolved into sophisticated systems. As telephones became a part of our personal, social and business lives, we became more and more dependent on them.

Whole telephone networks became the backbone of communications network, requiring sophisticated infrastructure to control and maintain them. These systems can range from business phone systems, PBX and IP PBX systems, switchboards, answering machines, speaker phones, router, optical fiber network, LAN/IP telephone equipment, teleconferencing equipment, voice communication computer peripherals, modems, VOIP solutions, etc.

Any sophisticated networking and communication systems have to use some or more of these systems to harness the full powers of telephones. The rapid strides made in the domain of telecommunications have benefited mankind immensely, and telephony equipment have made much of this possible.