U.S Telecom policy: A consumer perspective

Abstract

If over the last 20 years you have read any of the computer magazines, like Computer World, you have probably become aware of the necessity of mastering a new language in order to understand these publications. A jargon of specialization has characterized writings on telecommunications largely because new language had to be invented to describe new technologies and new linkages. This obscurity, however, illustrates and reflects the obscurity of thought about the consumption function in this area. It is an obscurity that is not remote from other professional specializations. Doctors have it, lawyers have it, accountants have it, engineers have it, and their publications reflect it. The difference, of course, is that neither doctors, lawyers, accountants, nor engineers profess to be global and communicative in terms of their specialization. While the information industry does profess to be global, it professes to be dominant, it professes to be overwhelming, it professes to be all-pervasive, it even professes to be arrogant. You have heard that 60% of our economy is information-based. Well, let me tell you. About 90% of the Neanderthals' economy was information-based. What does that mean? What does it mean to brag constantly about the overwhelming, forthcoming ascent of an information economy? It's been widely touted in some futurist writings and you see it repeated again and again. I am old enough to remember the days when television came on board and we were told about the revolutionary impact of television. And the revolutionary impact was largely given a positive dimension. It was going to enlighten, it was going to broaden, it was going to diversify, and it did have a revolutionary impact. It revolutionized the way we spend our leisure hours. It revolutionized the way we can turn our brains into putty. It revolutionized our predictions as to the tolerance level of human beings for redundancy. It revolutionized the degree to which we keep off the sidewalks and don't communicate with one another, person-to-person, in a community. It revolutionized the way in which we, including children, rest, sitting in one chair sipping, soft drinks, beer, or coffee for 25 hours a week. The same thing occurred with the atomic age. I remember, when I was 12 years old,