Telecommunications Essentials

The New Public Network

Given the revolutionary changes in telecommunications, it is clear that we are moving toward a new public network. The new public network needs to have end-to-end digitalization. We began implementing digital technology in the early 1960s, and we've done quite well at getting it deployed throughout the various backbone networks. Worldwide, probably some 80% of backbones are now digitalized. However, the local loop—that is, the last mile between the subscriber and the network—is still largely analog. Only around 7% of the subscriber lines today are digital, so the vast majority of users are functionally limited to analog usage.

We face an incredible modernization task to digitalize the local loop and to truly make the network ...