Nikola Tesla worked on technology in the field of telecommunication .
Nikola Tesla ( Никола Тесла 10 July 1856 -- 7 January 1943 ) was a Serbian-American inventor , electrical engineer , mechanical engineer , physicist , and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current ( AC ) electricity supply system . Born and raised in the Austrian Empire , Tesla received an advanced education in engineering and physics in the 1870s and gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry . In 1893 , he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices . Telephony ( [ təˈlɛfəni ] ) is the field of technology involving the development , application , and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice , fax , or data , between distant parties . Telephony is commonly referred to as the construction or operation of telephones and telephonic systems and as a system of telecommunications in which telephonic equipment is employed in the transmission of speech or other sound between points , with or without the use of wires .