In a world without telecoms... we'd have to invent them. The role of telecoms goes well beyond the finie daily stories of using the Internet or our mobile phones. Their impact on the development of Society, business and even countries is increasingly significant. The authors of this book, two distinguished telecoms specialists, décode the full magnitude of the telecommunication sector using resources from not only the fields of economics and technology, but also history and sociology.

The book takes an audacious stance: it places telecoms in the context of a third industrial revolution, that of the digital age, equivalent to the steam engine and railroads of the first industrial révolution. It shows how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are an essential part of our economy, and how they increasingly shape and structure other sectors (tele-services, tele-medicine, etc.).

With great insight, the authors explore various key telecoms trends to answer the questions: how do we reduce the digital divide? What new consumer habits stem from ICTs? And, finally, what is their impact on the development of emerging countries ?

• Telecom consumer habits: background and perspective
• Convergences, convergence
• Once upon a time there was a digital divide
• Adapting to serve economic development
• The new barbarians?
• Telecoms tomorrow