The future impact of telecommunications on information science

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Abstract
A brief review is first made of present telecommunication methods as used in today's information systems. Limitations are outlined and explained. An ideal system as it might be conceived now is postulated, compared with present technol ogy and with what will probably be available within the next ten years. Increasing role of satellite communications is emphasised. It is suggested that one of today's obstacles to worldwide systems, i.e. acceptance of standards, will no longer remain a problem, and the multistandard systems will be common. All speeds up to 9.6 Kbit/s will be used in some wideband transmission at 1 to 2 Mbit/s will not be unusual. By the end of the first year period, the hardware in use for the various component elements of the total system will have fundamentally changed and improved almost beyond recognition. A new leap-frogging process will follow in the techniques of transmission. Satellite systems will be in wide- scale use and optical fibre technology will already be replac ing standard transmission lines on a fairly large scale. By the year 2001, obsolescence of most of today's transmission equipment will have ensured almost total replacement, and noise problems will virtually have disappeared. Newspapers will also probably disappear at the same time, and contrary to Orwell's 1984 predictions, the era of the total information society will be in full swing.

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