ISDN in the year 2000

Telecommunications plays a central role in fundamentally altering our relation to information and the manner in which we place value upon it. This article looks ahead to the state of telecommunications in the year 2000 and describes how technological advances are becoming obsolete with increasing speed. It discusses current technological advances which are nevertheless forming the backbone of planning ISDN, and comments on how ISDN is never likely to meet the objectives towards which it is directed unless basic planning assumptions are rethought in the light of the advances moving forward at unexpectedly rapid rates.