ABSTRACT
We are in the midst of a global information revolution driven by the convergence and proliferation of information and communication technologies. The telecommunicators sector is changing at warp speed, driven by technological innovation that results in new equipment services, and also by new entrants and alliances between companies with experience in a wide range of information industries from telecommunication to broadcasting to computer hardware and software to publishing. Three major trends are carving these changes: the rapid introduction of new technologies and services; the restructuring of the telecommunications sector; and globalization of economies and of communications. Together these developments are not only changing the world of telecommunications, but the ways people work, learn, and interact.
The death of distance as a determination of the cost of communications will probably be the single most important economic force shaping society in the first half of the next century. 1
