The insinuation of telecommunications into the daily fabric of our lives has been
arguably the most important and surprising development of the last 25 years. Before
this revolution, telephone service and its place in our lives had been largely stable
for more than a generation. The growth was, so to speak, lateral, as the global reach
of telecommunications extended and more people got telephone service. The
distinction between oversea and domestic calls blurred with the advances in
switching and transmission, undersea cable, and communication satellites. Traffic
on the network remained overwhelmingly voice, largely in analog format with
facsimile (Fax) beginning to make inroads.
