Tom L. Powers on communications: VLSI will reduce bandwidth costs and make complex services possible

The technological trends in the post-Bell-System-divestiture era are clear, although the administrative and political trends may not be. One can readily foresee large national and international call-digital networks in which bandwidth is less and less expensive and software makes complex services possible. Low-cost transmission facilities (via lightwave, satellite, and terrestrial radio relay), advanced software, and incredible amounts of very large-scale integration (VLSI) will make it all possible.