The Communications Revolution

By having full, easy access to the telephone, the television and the Internet, many of us end up taking for granted the process it took for these telecommunications technologies to evolve.

It is crazy to imagine that, in 1956, when the first transatlantic telephone cable went on-line, only 89 simultaneous conversations could take place between Europe and North America. According to Frances Cairncross, "international and long-distance call rates have been falling, changing our mental map of the world," and, thanks to that, I can communicate via phone with my parents and friends back in Brazil on a daily basis. It is incredibly cheap. And, although the telephone does and cannot substitute a hug, it does bring us closer despite the distance. So I do agree with Cairncross when she says that "[d]istance will no longer determine the cost of communicating electronically" -- or the so-called "death of distance."

When I was about 8 years old, in 1992 or so, I remember it was very expensive for the Brazilian population to get a landline phone. Not everyone had one. People would even have telephone shares in the stock market, which completely disappeared only a few years later, when telephones became much cheaper and affordable (and the shares had no longer value). When my grandma passed away, in 1995, my mom inherited a landline from her, which I recall being worth a good amount of money. The same wouldn't apply today.

The discussion about mobile phones also called my attention as I read the text. "For conversations, people will come to use mobile phones almost exclusively," Cairncross says. As we can see below in the Associated Press video (from May 2008), this is apparently what is happening here in the U.S.



But until today, cell phone minute rates are pretty expensive in Brazil. Obviously, it's not as expensive as it was five years ago and it's much more accessible to everyone, but people will use their landline phones for longer conversations (even local) and long-distance and international calls. This clearly doesn't apply to the U.S., where in most cases long-distance rates cost as much as local rates. That is why, I believe, most families still have landline phones in Brazil.

On a side but related note, Cairncross says that "[a]lready [the Internet] carries telephone and video conferences as well as live television and radio broadcasts." In one of my classes, we started learning about Podcasting, which sparkled my interested in it. Today, I subscribed to a couple of them and was amazed at the sound quality and all the information we can get through free podcasts, which can be subscribed to and downloaded automatically when new content is added. However, podcasts are still evolving. People are still getting used to this new tool and source of information. But that made me think whether the radio as we have seen it over the years will continue to exist or become obsolete, just like landline phones are starting to.