What social/economic forces shape communication infrastructure?

After the turn of the century and the exponential growth of the internet and internet-based technology, communication infrastructure has been dramatically shaped by our society’s growing need for fast, worldwide communication. The advent of online communication has taken the world by storm and is quickly becoming the standard means of communication around the globe, and in a world where time is money, it’s vital for us to be able to communicate with anyone, anytime, and anywhere, quickly and easily. In a time where everyone is constantly mobile and a person can travel almost anywhere in the world within 24 hours, it is crucial that our means of communicating are not only able to keep up with us but are able to travel with us too.

After the first VoIP transmission began in 1973, it quickly grew and opened the way for a whole new market to emerge. Then, as interest grew in the internet and what it could do, there was an explosion of internet-based technology that pushed the limits of what was capable at the time. Among this technology was online communication, with email and instant messaging. Then, after the turn of the century, a new wave of technology emerged that allowed us to do more than communicate through text, it allowed us to have audio and video conversations. Additionally, doing this was free, and it allowed us to quickly and easily communicate with anyone anywhere in the world.

VoIP has proven to be a real game changer in the realm of telephony. As VoIP has become increasingly popular among companies and individuals, it has also taken over a substantial portion of the telephony market. VoIP offers numerous benefits and options to users, giving them a choice on many aspects of their phone usage. They can communicate through an audio- or video-only conversation, or through basic messaging. They can use traditional telephones, or they can opt to use IP phones, computers, or mobile devise. Also, with VoIP, the convergence of all forms of communication to the Internet is now complete: emails, phone calls, video calls, conference calls and all other forms of data transfer can now take place on a single unified IP network. As this technology continues to develop, I think we will see even more advancements in how we communicate, and I think that the next step will be the use of virtual reality.

Sources:

Pratomo, I., Asriadi, & Affandi, A. (2016). Implementing OLSR and Wireless VoIP as Low-Cost Infrastructure Telephony for Rural Area. Telkomnika, 14(2), 563-573. doi:10.12928/TELKOMNIKA.v14i1.3364

Arapinis, M., Mancini, L., Ritter, E., & Ryan, M. (2017). Analysis of privacy in mobile telephony systems. International Journal Of Information Security, 16(5), 491-523. doi:10.1007/s10207-016-0338-9

Cherry, S. (2005). Seven Myths About Voice over IP. IEEE Spectrum, 42(3), 52-57.