The Changing Telecommunications Landscape:

Abstract

The paper explores the changing telecommunications industry landscape and identifies implications these changes may have with regard to the provision and use of online information. It reflects upon the role that modem telecommunications now plays in the evolving information-based global economy, citing how modem telecommunications is removing the accident of geography from much of modem commerce and daily life. The fact that the telecommunications infrastructure can serve as a conduit to export jobs and has the potential for wealth creation, as well as serving as a means to expand markets and lever the creation and investment of wealth in a global information-based economy, is emphasized. The paper points out that domestic online information providers must ever-more-frequently compete in an unprotected global market, and cautions against imposing a disproportionate domestic economic burden on the use of telecommunications facilities and services in support of social policy. The likelihood of increased .ec...