Its components include local phone service, long distance carriers, wireless companies, telecommunications equipment manufacturers, cable companies, satellite transmissions, and, some would say, huge pieces of the entertainment and computer industries. Telecommunications companies are in play. Telecommunications cross-fertilize other industries. There are more and more companies getting into the telecommunications business. Even companies whose primary business may not be telecommunications are defining themselves as being in the telecommunications business.
Cable television is the most visible.
Industries from banking to pharmaceuticals to transportation are increasingly viewing telecommunications as a critical success factor. Money goes over phone lines these days, as do medicinal drug orders and route tracings of truck shipments. Telecommunications requires complex technology. If everything can be delivered over phone lines, bandwidth must increase. Engineers are working with fiber optics, wireless technologies, low earth orbit systems, local loop radio, asynchronous transfer modes, networking, Internet filtering, push technologies, and a host of others.