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Communications technology

The ‘communications revolution’ has, in many ways, just begun. New communications media are changing the social, economic and political structure of societies across the world.

In 1997, when David Graddol’s book The Future of English? was published, the cost of international telephone calls was falling fast. By the end of the 20th century, the cost of a call was determined less by distance and duration and more by the extent to which the telecoms business in a destination country had been liberalised. Countries such as Vietnam were amongst the most costly to reach from the UK, whereas the English-speaking world had been brought into close proximity, in terms of ‘teledistance’.

The world is talking more. In 2004, international calls from fixed lines reached 140 billion minutes. In 2002, mobile phone connections overtook fixed lines and passed the 2 billion figure in September 2005.

With the development of voice over internet protocol (VOIP), calls can be made over the internet across the world at no marginal cost. Such facilities are not only available to large corporations – making Indian call centres more attractive – but also to ordinary consumers through schemes such as Skype which, by the end of 2005, claimed to have 50 million users. VOIP is replacing landline technology, which is expected to be obsolete in the UK by 2010.

Text messaging

Short text messages (SMS) have become a major form of communication in Europe and Asia, especially among young people.

SMS has had several social and political impacts: in the UK new forms of bullying have emerged; in Germany, it is used to organise mass parties. In 2001, text messaging helped bring down the Philippines President, Joseph Estrada; in 2005, it helped mobilise participants in the ‘Orange revolution’ in the Ukraine, and massive anti-Syrian protests in Lebanon after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

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