Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Grainger Engineering Library Symposium [PAGE 10]

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The obvious solution would be for phone or cable companies to Install a fiber-optic line to every address. The enormous cost makes this Impractical, at least any time soon. In a more realistic approach. AT&T is working with telephone companies In the United States and abroad to install neighborhood nodes. Then other, more economical, forms of broadband connections serve individual customers. Another approach compresses broadband signals so they can be carried over standard phone or cable TV lines. Compression technology also is used In videophones and other videoconferencing products and services. The quality doesn't match that of a full broadband signal, but it's good and getting better. Yet another solution of great potential is wireless technology One day, radio waves will carry broadband signals and people will connect with interactive multimedia services through direct broadcast satellite or through expanded personal communications technologies. This will empower people with two capabilities that are vitally important to the human spirit: mobility and interaction. I'm reminded of the striking visual images captured by TV cameras when a U.S. astronaut first made an untethered walk in space. The year was 1984 — ten years ago. We saw a man in a space suit, looking a bit like the Pillsbury dough boy, silhouetted against the black of the universe. He was totally free of any connection to earth. No ropes to the spacecraft. No planet beneath his feet. For the first time, a human being was completely on his own, an individual satellite drifting in space. He was, quite literally, set free by technology That is AT&T's vision for wireless services. We want to set people free with technology, to give them the personal freedom to move about at will and still stay in touch, if they choose; to deliver a wide range of wireless services that allow the exchange of voice, visual, and data messages; to fulfill the promise of anytime, anywhere communications.

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