UNION INTERNATIONALE DES TELECOMMUNICATIONS
INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
UNIÓN INTERNACIONAL DE TELECOMUNICACIONES
 


The Impact of Telecommunications on Global Society

A presentation by
Dr. Pekka Tarjanne
Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union
to the Hans E. Andersin Seminar
"The Impact of Technology on Society"
Helsinki, Finland
October 1, 1993


	It is a great honour to have been invited to take part in this 
seminar which has been organized to honour Professor Hans E. 
Andersin, who recently retired from the position of Professor of 
Computers in Industrial Production at the Helsinki University of 
Technology, and to share the platform with so many distinguished 
speakers.

	The subject which I have been asked to address is most 
challenging.  As I think all of us probably know, the impact of 
telecommunications on contemporary society has been so great that it 
would be impossible for any one of us to describe its effects in 
anything like their totality, and certainly not in the all too brief 
period of time we shall be together today.  I will therefore try to 
approach the subject from the vantage point of my position as 
Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, the 
United Nations specialized agency responsible to the international 
community for facilitating and promoting the development of 
telecommunications worldwide.

	In my presentation today, I would like to do three things:

*	first, I will briefly trace the origins of the idea that 
we are now living in a global society, as distinct from 
a world composed of independent peoples organized in 
sovereign nations, and to look at the role played by 
telecommunications, both theoretically and practically, 
in the creation of this new way of thinking;

*	second, I will attempt to summarize some of the main 
impacts of telecommunications on this global society;

*	third, I will offer some ideas about how the members of 
the international telecommunications community can act 
to ensure that the benefits of telecommunications are 
maximized.

1.	The Global Information Society

	The idea that we are living in a "global" or "borderless" world 
is relatively new.  The meaning we now attach so easily to the word 
"global" was unknown 100 years ago, when the world was still in the 
process of being divided up into independent sovereign nation states.  
However, the dramatic events which have taken place in the twentieth 
century -- including global warfare, the development of global 
transportation and telecommunication systems, and the rise of global 
products, markets, and corporations -- have convinced many people 
that we are indeed living in a new historical era, in which the 
economic, social, cultural and political structures that shaped 
relations between people over the past two centuries will be 
transformed.  There are different accounts of why this is the case, 
but most emphasize the central role played by developments in 
telecommunications, computer and information technology.  This 
historical change is often described as the passage from an 
"industrial" to an "information" era.

	The notion that we are now living in a global information 
society is a hybrid, the product of three distinct ideas concerning 
the role of telecommunications, information and computers in society.

	The first key idea is that largely as a result of developments 
in telecommunications technology, the world has entered a "global" 
era in which our primary frame of reference is -- or should be -- the 
world as a whole rather than family, tribe, culture, religion, or 
nation.  Elements of this idea are not new.  The notion that "we are 
all one" has a long history, but primarily has been confined to 
religious contexts.  The idea that universal rights and obligations 
should be recognized, institutionalized and given practical effect is 
much more recent.  It dates from the current century, from the 
establishment of the United Nations and the League of Nations before 
it.  The foundations for the theory that we are living in a "global" 
phase of human development, in which telecommunications have a 
determining influence on economic and social structures, are most 
closely associated with the name of Marshall McLuhan, who is credited 
with the notion that the world has become a "global village", thanks 
to modern telecommunications.

	The second key idea is that we are living in an "information 
economy" in which the production, processing and distribution of 
information has become a very important economic activity in its own 
right, employing large numbers of people, directly making a 
considerable contribution to the wealth of nations, and indirectly 
determining the performance of private and public organizations.  The 
origins of this idea also go back to the 1960s, to the seminal work 
done by Fritz Machlup at Princeton University early in the decade and 
later carried forward by Marc Porat.  In the 1970s, the OECD 
investigated the rise of the "information economy" and found similar 
trends occurring in all advanced industrial countries.  Subsequent 
research has broadened the scope of analysis of the information 
economy, for example by concentrating on the "information 
industries", developing an understanding of the economics of 
information, and examining the use of information as a strategic 
resource in both private and public organizations.

	The third key idea is that as a result of developments in 
computer technology, there is no reason in principle why intelligent 
machines cannot carry out activities previously reserved for human 
beings, and perform them at least as well if not better than their 
human counterparts.  The idea that machines possessed with 
"artificial intelligence" would assume important roles in every major 
social institution can be traced to the development of the first, 
primitive computers, prior to and during the Second World War.  Each 
succeeding generation of computer technology, and the progressive 
integration of computers and telecommunications into a new, 
information technology complex, has confirmed the presentiments of 
computer pioneers such as Norbert Wiener, who foresaw the threats and 
opportunities that artificially intelligent machines present  for The 
Human Use of Human Beings.  Today, work, leisure, politics, finance, 
education, health care are all being transformed, for better or 
worse, by information technology.

	In the 1970s, strands from these and other streams of thought 
began to be woven together into general theories of social 
transformation written from various points of view, and aimed at 
different audiences.  Some of these works, such as Daniel Bell's 
monumental The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, were academic.  
Others, like Alvin Toffler's Third Wave, were popular.  The Nora-Minc 
report on The Informatization of Society addressed the President and 
people of France.  Yoneji Masuda presented a utopian vision of The 
Information Society.  

	In the 1980s, grand theoretical speculation of this kind was 
cut short by practical realities.  Technology had developed to the 
point where lofty vision was becoming practical reality, and where 
hardware and software were being developed and applied much more 
rapidly than social or political theory.  The "oil shocks" and 
"stagflation" of the 1970s, and the global recession which followed 
in the early 1980s, drove the application of telecommunications and 
computer technology in offices, factories and social institutions, in 
an unremitting quest for reduced cost, improved quality, and 
competitive advantage.  In many countries, these trends were 
reinforced by increasingly strong international competition in key 
industrial sectors, and by the decade-long ascendancy of an ideology 
which favoured market solutions where government intervention had 
formerly been preferred.  By the end of the decade, the previously 
obscure notion that the world had become a "global information 
economy" had become commonplace among business and political elites, 
many of whom experienced it as a daily reality, not only at work but 
in their leisure time too, through the influence of the increasingly 
global mass media.

2.	The Impact of Telecommunications on Global Society

	As I said at the outset, the impact of telecommunications on 
global society is so vast that it cannot be captured within the scope 
of a single presentation.  Moreover, since we are living "between 
past and future", we cannot yet be sure about the ultimate 
consequences of technological developments.  In many areas today, 
there are more questions than answers -- at least for me.  However, 
let me try to outline some of the major effects which have already 
been felt, as well as important issues that may be anticipated.

Economic Impacts

	The most dramatic impacts of telecommunications have 
undoubtedly been economic.  It is now accepted that the productivity 
and competitiveness of all economic sectors and their capacity to 
innovate in terms of products, services and processes, increasingly 
depends on communications networks.

	The networks of the future will clearly affect the nature of 
work.  Certain types of jobs will disappear as routine communications 
functions are automated.  The computer-generated voices that now 
provide  directory assistance, weather information, and 
transportation schedules are examples of things to come.  As old jobs 
disappear, new skills will be in demand.  In The Work of Nations, 
Robert Reich -- a former professor who is now the Secretary of Labour 
in the Clinton administration --  argues that advanced economies will 
require highly-skilled 'symbolic processors', thereby raising the 
spectre of a bi-modal distribution of the workforce between those who 
have highly developed communication skills, and those who are 
confined to menial service jobs or permanent unemployment.

	It is also clear that telecommunications networks are affecting 
the location of work.  Company location decisions increasingly depend 
on access to advanced communications networks and the availability of 
a skilled workforce.

	In developed countries, 'telework' and 'telecommuting' 
arrangements - which permit employees to work from home or remote 
work sites using computer communications, instead of travelling to 
central office locations - offer many advantages.  From the point of 
view of the individual, they can accommodate different lifestyles, 
family situations and personal needs.  From the point of view of the 
organization, they can provide access to skills that might not be 
otherwise available.  From the point of view of society, they promise 
reduced energy consumption costs in terms of transportation, 
construction and 'HVAC' - heating, ventilation and air-conditioning.  
However, a heavy adjustment price was likely to have to be paid by 
these industries if the practice became widespread.
	Telecommunication networks are also making it possible for 
developing countries to participate in the world economy in ways that 
simply were not possible in the past, by enabling them to take 
advantage of their intellectual and cultural resources - the raw 
material of the information age.  
	In the industrial era, raw materials derived from physical 
resources were shipped from developing countries to the developed 
world, where they were processed into finished products.  These were 
then resold in the markets of the world - including those of the 
countries from which the raw material originally came.  In this 
system of production, most of the economic value of the final 
products was added in developed countries, by skilled workers 
operating capital intensive production processes.  As a result, many 
developing countries suffered from a "brain drain", as their best and 
brightest people moved to the developed world in search of advanced 
skills and challenging work.  
	In the information economy of the twenty-first century, well 
designed policies and clever strategies should make it possible to 
repatriate high value-added jobs to the countries of the developing 
world, through telecommunications networks.  This in turn will lead 
to the development of wealthier, more stable societies, and help put 
an end to the economic, social and cultural dislocation which 
unfortunately has been a by-product of the industrial era.

Social Impacts

	Telecommunications is having a dramatic impact on social 
institutions, in its own right and as a consequence of the economic 
changes I have just described.

	For one thing, these developments directly challenge education 
and training systems.  There will be an increasing need to tailor 
education and training to individual needs, both in classroom 
settings and outside them.  The networks of the future could play a 
key role in developing self-paced education using multi-media tools, 
in distance education, and in the delivery of educational and 
training resources to public institutions and individual homes.  
Innovations of these kinds will be needed to develop the skills 
required to be competitive in the global information economy, and to 
support such concepts as creating a 'continuous learning culture' and 
lifelong education.

	Beyond this, it is clear that telecommunications will affect 
the delivery of a wide range of other social services.  For example, 
there is great interest in the application of computer and 
communication technology to health care, in order to deliver services 
more efficiently and effectively, to encourage preventive medicine, 
and to provide in-home alternatives to hospital care.  Personally, I 
am fascinated by the possibilities of using communications technology 
to serve the needs of the handicapped and elderly, so that they may 
lead more normal lives as long as possible, and participate in the 
affairs of society, instead of having to remain on the margins.  
There are many other potential opportunities in the field of social 
and government services.  Could unemployment, social welfare and 
health insurance benefits be paid electronically?  As we move toward 
electronic filing of income tax returns, will the time frames for 
filing, paying and collecting refunds change significantly?  Could 
the networks of the future be used to provide better access to and to 
distribute government information more effectively - for example, 
through public information kiosks?

Rights and Freedoms

	It is already clear that telecommunications will create 
significant  opportunities and challenges to economic and social 
structures in the global information society.  It is also becoming 
clear that the networks of the future will pose significant questions 
insofar as human rights and freedoms are concerned.

	To begin with, the economic and social changes I have outlined 
will certainly raise questions about the meaning of one of the 
touchstones of communications policy.  In many countries since the 
late nineteenth century, 'universal access to basic communications 
services at affordable rates' has been a foundation of communications 
policy - broadly understood to include content as well as carriage 
services.  In these countries, the application of this principle has 
resulted in very high penetration levels for basic telephone and off-
air television services - and to universal messaging through the 
post.  It has also led to the creation of networks of public 
libraries which make information universally and freely available in 
all but the smallest communities.  Should a similar package of 
content and carriage services be universally available on the 
networks of the future?  If so, who should pay for it?  What should 
it contain?  Should subsidies be provided to achieve universal 
service?  If so, how?

	Beyond the issue of the meaning of universal access to basic 
services in the information age, telecommunications will raise a 
number of other very significant questions that will likely touch 
each of us personally in our daily lives.

	In a number of countries, concerns have been expressed 
regarding the impact of telecommunications on privacy.  It is clear 
that some countries -- Finland, I am happy to say is among them -- 
have been more successful than others in providing the necessary 
safeguards.  Beyond this, we should examine if the principles of 
freedom of information and expression developed for the media of the 
past can be applied to the network of the future.  Can the laws, 
rules and regulations pertaining to such matters as pornography, 
libel, slander, defamation, and hate literature - as developed for 
the print and broadcasting media - be applied to the electronic 
services offered on the networks of the future?  How can the 
principles of copyright law be applied to multi-media services which 
may combine diverse sources of information from different media to 
create new products?

	How will the networks of the future impact on cultural 
identity?  The broadcasting system - the principal means of 
distributing cultural products in many countries - already feels 
threatened by direct broadcasting satellites.  The high definition 
television and video-on-demand services offered on the networks of 
the future will likely pose similar threats.  On the other hand, the 
dramatically lower communications costs that should be made possible 
by these networks, their greater flexibility, and their multi-media 
capacity could create new opportunities for cultural expression, at 
the local, regional, national, and international level.  Will the 
networks of the future open up new avenues of cultural expression?  
Or will they be dominated by homogenized content?

Political Impacts

	Finally, it is also becoming clear that the telecommunications 
networks of the future will raise questions about the conduct of 
politics and government in the information society.

	One very important question is how will they impact on the 
political process itself.  Are electronic referenda the logical 
successor to opinion polls in shaping government policy?  How will 
the networks of the future affect the conduct of election campaigns?  
Will they enable political parties to identify and influence voter 
preferences even more effectively than current technologies?  How 
will the 'personalization' of communication networks affect the 
presentation of candidates and issues?  Could the networks of the 
future provide more democratic access to government institutions?  Or 
will the new opportunities for political manipulation and control 
override the "democratic" effects?

	Perhaps the most fundamental political question to be faced 
concerns the role of the nation state in the "borderless world" 
created by telecommunications networks in the information society.  
Communications networks have already had considerable impact on some 
countries' ability to control their monetary, fiscal and cultural 
policies.  Will the networks of the future undermine 'national' 
policies in other areas as well?  If so, what will replace them?  
Will new global political institutions arise to manage the global 
economy?  Or will nations fragment and be replaced by smaller-scale 
political units based on geographic or demographic considerations?

3.	Challenges Facing the International Community

	As you can see from this brief survey, telecommunications will 
provide many opportunities and many challenges to global society.  
The development of technology has raised a lot of questions, but so 
far has not provided definitive answers.

	The thesis that we are moving from an era in which economies 
were primarily based on the exploitation of natural resources to one 
in which they are based on the exploitation of information resources 
can be debated at length as can the corollary thesis that we are 
passing from a world of sovereign nation states into a "borderless 
world" in which effective political power will be vested  in other 
kinds of institutions.   For those entrusted by the international 
community with responsibility for managing international relations in 
a time of rapid change, two facts stand out.

	On the one hand, we are clearly living in a period of 
historical discontinuity in which the structures of the past seem to 
have lost their power to determine the future.  Given many of the 
events we have witnessed in recent years, it is surely not 
unreasonable to think that political power is likely to drain away 
from the nation states that were created in the past couple of 
centuries and flow towards super- and sub-national entities, whether 
through the force of circumstance or in the best interests of 
mankind.

	On the other hand, it is also clear that for the time being 
effective political power remains the property of the nation state.  
The structure of international laws and institutions which has been 
developed to govern the common affairs of mankind still rests on this 
base. With only limited exceptions, no sovereignty has been ceded to 
super-national political organizations.  International relations are 
still the way the affairs of the world are managed, whether through 
bilateral relations between the 200 or more independent countries now 
found in the world, or through multilateral relations between the 180 
plus members of the United Nations and the many other 
intergovernmental organizations that have been put in place.

	The international telecommunications community is particularly 
sensitive to the fact that we are living "between past and future".  
In part, this is because telecommunications is in the vanguard of 
many of the most important structural changes that are taking place 
in contemporary society.  In part, it is because the development of 
telecommunications has historically depended on the reconciliation of 
competing interests -- between the public and private sectors, and 
between nations -- in the light of criteria that explicitly or 
implicitly derive from "global" or universal values.
	From its very beginning, the telecommunications industry has 
been closely associated with certain values - most notably freedom of 
expression, reciprocity between individuals, and universality of 
access.  These values are at the core of the liberal-democratic 
economic and political institutions to which people everywhere now 
aspire.
	Through a variety of different mechanisms, governments and the 
telecommunications industry established partnerships which allowed 
the industry to grow and prosper at the same time as they promoted 
these fundamental social values.  This tradition existed both 
nationally and internationally. As  Haruo Yamaguchi, the Chairman of 
NT&T, has noted, the telecommunications industry has also been 
somewhat unusual in the degree to which its members have cooperated 
with each other to find common solutions to communications problems.

	For the past century and a quarter, the International 
Telecommunication Union has been the central forum in which the 
international telecommunications community has sought to reach beyond 
purely national interests toward global values.  The ITU is the 
oldest international organization.  It was founded in 1865, in the 
middle of the industrial era and a time when nationalism was still in 
its ascendant phase, out of recognition that the utility of telegraph 
services would be greatly increased if common standards were adopted 
in different countries, and that the development of telecommunication 
systems and services could be significantly enhanced through 
international cooperation.  The Union evolved as technology developed 
and the political structure of the world became more complex.  Since 
1947, the ITU has been a specialized agency of the United Nations, 
responsible within the limits prescribed by its member states for the 
standardization, regulation and development of international 
telecommunications.
	The central message of my remarks is that all of us involved in 
telecommunications must work together to ensure that we do not lose 
sight of the universal goals which have traditionally been associated 
with telecommunications -- particularly the idea that everyone should 
have access to at least basic telecommunication services, and should 
be able to use these services as they choose in the pursuit of 
economic, social, political and cultural development objectives, 
individually or in association with others, subject only to the 
limitations that are considered reasonable in democratic societies.  
Of course, I have a personal interest in seeing a strong commitment 
from the telecommunications industry to these goals, since they are 
enshrined in the charter of the ITU and other U.N. agencies.  
However, I hope that by the end of this seminar, we might all agree 
that these goals should make sense to anyone who subscribes to the 
idea that we are living in a "global information society", and that 
these goals will consequently be seen to merit support as a matter of 
public policy and as an element of business strategy.  Let me explain 
why.
	The changes that have taken place in telecommunications over 
the past two decades have created a situation which I have described 
on other occasions as one of great historical irony.  Progress in 
telecommunications technology has made it possible to seriously 
believe that, with wise policies, good will, careful planning and 
some ingenuity, it might be possible for the telecommunications 
industry to begin to realize McLuhan's vision of the world as a 
"global village".  However, as is often the case, reality has not 
quite conformed to the visions of idealists.
	The remarkable progress of telecommunication technology has 
been accompanied by dramatic changes in the structure of the 
telecommunications industry, in the range of products and services it 
offers, and in the nature of the telecommunications marketplace.  In 
many countries, telecom operations have been separated from 
government Administrations.  Competition has been introduced in the 
provision of equipment and services.  Innovation has led to explosive 
growth in many market segments.  Technologies have converged and new 
players have entered the industry.  Major product and service 
providers have attempted to develop world-wide capabilities, through 
direct investment and strategic alliances.  They have done this 
principally to better serve the needs of their most important 
customers, the trans-national corporations whose businesses vitally 
depend on telecommunications.
	These developments, which have dominated the telecommunications 
scene in the last five or ten years, have put a very different spin 
on the notion that we live in a "global information society".  
Instead of being a "global village" in which everyone participates 
and shares, the emerging "global information society" seems to be a 
divided society, marked by a growing gap between the "information 
rich" and the "information poor" and increasingly heated competition 
between companies, countries and regions, primarily seeking their own 
advantage.
	Is the picture really this bleak?  No society of any kind can 
exist unless there is agreement on certain principles, standards, and 
goals that are held in common and respected by the great majority of 
the members of a society.  This need for shared, universal goals must 
also be true of the global information society and, to a certain 
extent, this is certainly the case.  As we see very clearly at the 
ITU, the changes that have transformed the telecommunications 
industry from a government service to a competitive business have not 
lessened the need for international agreement on global technical 
standards, or on global rules for sharing the radio frequency 
spectrum.  If anything, they have made timely agreement on these very 
specific kinds of universal values more important than ever before.
	The growth of international trade and competition in the 
provision of telecommunication services have led to a quest for 
common values in other areas as well.  As long as international 
telecommunications were provided by agreements between independent 
national monopolies, each country was in principle free to determine 
its domestic telecommunications policy and regulatory arrangements.  
Now that telecommunications services are beginning to be offered on a 
trans-national basis in an increasingly liberalized, competitive 
environment, some ITU members are  beginning to discover that there 
may be potential advantages -- as well as practical needs -- to 
harmonize national telecommunication policies and regulatory 
practices.  Among the forces supporting this development are the 
negotiations to liberalize trade in services taking place at GATT, 
the desire in some regions of the world to establish common markets 
for telecommunications services, and the decisions made by a number 
of countries to attract telecommunications investment capital by 
establishing regulatory regimes which are attractive to international 
investors, and therefore tend to mirror practices in countries with 
liberalized telecommunication systems.  This is not to say that all 
countries should adopt the same set of telecommunication policies and 
regulations.  It is simply to say that there may be a number of basic 
principles which can be advantageously applied by most countries, if 
not all.  The separation of telecommunications operations from 
government administration and the establishment of transparent 
regulatory processes may be examples of such principles.
	In spite of the progress made in reconciling the requirements 
of the international community for common international standards, 
regulations and policies with the demands of an increasingly 
competitive and differentiated global marketplace, there is one area 
where the world community is in danger of losing sight of the need 
for universal standards.  Unfortunately, from the viewpoint of global 
development and the potential contribution of telecommunications to 
raising the quality of human life, our collective vision is in danger 
of failing in the one area where it counts the most.  I am referring 
to the goal of providing universal access to basic telecommunications 
services.  Almost a decade ago, the Maitland Commission proposed that 
the world community agree to reach this goal by the year 2000.  We 
are now more than halfway toward that deadline.  However, instead of 
narrowing, the gap between developed and developing countries has 
widened. 
	To my mind, the main challenge facing public and private 
participants in the telecommunications industry is to re-establish 
this goal and to devise new and clever ways of achieving it, if not 
by the year 2000, at least not too far into the next millennium.  At 
the national level, the goal of universal access was a cornerstone of 
the "ancien régime", the regime of government-run and controlled 
telecommunications monopolies.  The challenge facing us is to make 
this same principle a cornerstone of the "new world information 
order" being brought about by today's competitive telecommunications 
environment.
	So far, this new regime has brought many benefits to some parts 
of our global village, but has ignored others completely.  It should 
now be clear that many earlier visions of the global consequences of 
the telecommunications revolution were naive, or at least incomplete.  
It is clear that idealistic visions propounded by technological 
determinists of a "global village" made up of "electronic cottages" 
and peopled by "tele-workers" will not be realized on the basis of 
technical possibilities alone.  More is required.  It is also clear 
that the more materialistic visions developed by economic 
determinists of a "global information economy" in which the hidden 
hand of the market solves all of the social problems left to us by 
the industrial revolution is equally unlikely to come to pass, on 
market principles alone.  Again, more is required.  What we need is a 
new vision, based on a recognition that the full benefits of the 
telecommunications revolution will only be achieved on the basis of 
respect for certain universal principles, the first and foremost 
being people's right to access telecommunications for their various 
development needs.  This vision, and the shared commitment of all 
members of the international telecommunication community to its 
achievement, is the surest foundation for building a truly global 
information society.


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