Telecommunication Towards the 21st Century — Visual, Intelligent, and Personal Communications

Abstract

As we approach the 21st century, the trends pointing towards society and economy becoming more individual-oriented, more aging, more information-oriented, more global, etc. are expected to become even more pronounced, evolving to ever greater heights on a global scale. In addition, the speed and scope of technical innovations are expected to quicken and expand. The current trends progressing toward “ultra”, “optical”, “intelligent”, “human-like”, “larger capacity” and “mobility” will show marked advances. Amidst these social and technological changes, the expectations and the role that should be fulfilled by the promise of information and communications will be accorded ever more importance. With a sweeping view of the beginning of the 21st century, NTT has formulated an advanced information and communications service vision; VI&P(Visual, Intelligent and Personal Communications Services), aiming to construct “a stage conducive to the new era we shall witness in the 21st century calling for heartfelt generosity and warmth through person-to-person communications.” Translating the vision of VI&P into reality requires us to formulate long range plan to transform from the structure of the existing network to high-speed, broadband ISDN. We must also confront and resolve problems wrought by information and communications advance, such as the issue of privacy, information stress, repercussions of systems going down, etc., from a sociological perspective as well.

This paper discusses the general trends and concerns surrounding information and communications with a focus on the VI&P service vision.