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Chapter 7 Telecommunications, the Internet, and Wireless Technology 279

7.1 TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING IN

TODAY’S BUSINESS WORLD
I f you run or work in a business, you can’t do without networks. You need
to communicate rapidly with your customers, suppliers, and employees.
Until about 1990, businesses used the postal system or telephone system
with voice or fax for communication. Today, however, you and your
employees use computers, e-mail and messaging, the Internet, cell phones, and
mobile computers connected to wireless networks for this purpose. Networking
and the Internet are now nearly synonymous with doing business.

NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATION TRENDS

Firms in the past used two fundamentally different types of networks:
telephone networks and computer networks. Telephone networks historically
handled voice communication, and computer networks handled data traffic.
Telephone networks were built by telephone companies throughout the twenti-
eth century using voice transmission technologies (hardware and software), and
these companies almost always operated as regulated monopolies throughout
the world. Computer networks were originally built by computer companies
seeking to transmit data between computers in different locations.
Thanks to continuing telecommunications deregulation and informa-
tion technology innovation, telephone and computer networks are converg-
ing into a single digital network using shared Internet-based standards and
equipment. Telecommunications providers today, such as AT&T and Verizon,
offer data transmission, Internet access, cellular telephone service, and
television programming as well as voice service. Cable companies, such as
Cablevision and Comcast, offer voice service and Internet access. Computer
networks have expanded to include Internet telephone and video services.
Increasingly, all of these voice, video, and data communications are based on
Internet technology.
Both voice and data communication networks have also become more powerful
(faster), more portable (smaller and mobile), and less expensive. For instance, the

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