Telecommunications
Traditionally, telecommunications denoted the long-distance connections that linked television networks to their affiliates and the long-distance phone connections that linked telephone networks to local switching centers. Hence the term applied both to AT&T's long-distance telephone network and to the television industry's worldwide networks-but each used very different technologies to transmit voice or video. Now with the rapidly growing size of the Internet, telecommunications has expanded to include data networks. The newest technologies to join the telecommunications industry are wireless phones and wireless data businesses.
Telecommunications and information-related industries continue to enjoy a rapid growth in the Internet and the wireless phone sectors. Table 1 provides a summary of the major classes of telecommunications services and how they function.
| Local and Regional Telephone |
- Regional or local phone services–from central office to residents
- Wireless phone services–from local towers to adjacent cell phones
- Commercial phone services–from central office to businesses
|
| Long-Distance Telephone |
- Phone/voice networks–backbone of the long-distance phone system
|
| Internet and Data Networks |
- Data/voice over the Internet backbone or private networks
- Internet content areas: Web sites, subscription content, private networks linked to Internet
|
| Television |
- Regional cable-TV companies–central office downloads TV programming and sends it out to residents
- Satellite TV companies–residents each have satellite dish
- Broadcast networks–content is beamed up to satellites, received by local stations, and retransmitted as conventional analog or digital signals to viewers
|
The Regulatory Environment
The concept of universal service has traditionally referred to the goal that all Americans should have access to affordable telephone service.
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