Telecommunications is now the fastest changing part of the IT industry, encompassing vast disciplines from distributed systems to real-time applications. I have had the pleasure of being involved in what I believe is the most exciting time in its history. It wasn’t always this way, as telecommunications started out as a novelty: ‘‘An amazing invention, but who would want to use one?’’ – US President Rutherford B. Hayes after making a telephone call from Washington . to Philadelphia. Interestingly however, in 1879, the first telephone was installed in the White House. At first it was hardly used, because there weren’t many other phones in Washington to call [WHITEH] | Next Generation Network Services Neill Wilkinson Copyright 2002 John Wiley Sons Ltd ISBNs 0-471-48667-1 Hardback 0-470-84603-8 Electronic Next Generation Network .
