What if telecoms...

... Were the key to the third industrial revolution ?

In a world without telecoms... we'd have to invent them. The role of telecoms goes well beyond the little daily stories of using the Internet or our mobile phones. Their impact on the development of society, business and even countries is increasingly significant. The authors of this book, two distinguished telecoms specialists, decode the full magnitude of the telecommunication sector using resources from not only the fields of economics and technology, but also history and sociology.

The book takes an audacious stance : it places telecoms in the context of a third industrial revolution, that of the digital age, equivalent to the steam engine and railroads of the first industrial revolution. It shows how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are an essential part of our economy, and how they increasingly shape and structure other sectors (tele-services, tele-medicine, etc.).

With great insight, the authors explore various key telecoms trends to answer the questions : how do we reduce the digital divide ? What new consumer habits stem from ICTs ? And, finally, what is their impact on the development of emerging countries ?