What has happened to telecommunications over the past 20 years?
Telecommunications has now become part and parcel of our lives so much that we are not conscious of its existence except when it fails. If we stop and reflect for a while on our daily routines – the news and weather forecasts, our banking transactions, our airline reservations, our credit card debiting, our entertainment, our security, and, increasingly our access to other users of the Internet – we can see that they are all dependent on the telecommunications infrastructure. In the past 20 years, the borderlines between telecommunications and computing have blurred, and now the economic growth of nations, enterprises, organizations and individuals is highly dependent on rapid and efficient information technology. The telecommunications industry in its own right is today amongst the largest revenue providers in most economies. On the other hand, the infrastructure provided by the industry is even more important as a national asset to other enterprises and activities. It is therefore cr
