The Death of Distance: Communications Revolution and Its Implications

An incisive analysis of the changes taking place in the telecommunications industry and the huge effects it will have on business and society. Never before in human history has technology changed as fast as it is doing now. The biggest changes of all are taking place in communications and computers, which are being combined in new and astonishing ways. 3 sets of technologies - telephone, telvision, computer - are now racing ahead more quickly than ever before. The result will be a communications revolution which is still in it's infancy, and which is the backdrop to this book by The Economist Media editor Frances Cairncross. But the sheer speed of the change has overtaken human ability to make use of it. Technologies are hunting for uses rather than the other way. Plenty of things are becoming possible - but people may not want them, or at l east may not be willing to pay for them . A gigantic guessing game is taking place, to try to see where the communications revolution will lead, and this book offers some possible answers. 1 thing is for sure - thanks to technology and competition in telecoms, distance will soon be no object, and the effect on business and society will be dramatic.