Telecommunication Networks

Connectivity and Communality

Telecommunication networks may be distinguished in terms of their connectivity and communality. Connectivity refers to the physical system (the network) that provides the system's components with the means to communicate with one another. Full connectivity is the capability for all nodes to directly communicate with all other nodes. However, for any given telecommunication network, the most practical system might not be fully connected due to economic, geographic, or historical reasons. A network that is less than fully connected may offer optimal connectivity, depending on the system's patterns of use. Determining optimal connectivity is the subject matter of engineers and computer scientists. At a macro level, connectivity is the telecommunication system's infrastructure—its physical system.

Communality represents the network for collectively sharing information. It is the generalized pattern of social exchange where individual nodes may share information only with specific nodes and how the physical system is used—the telecommunication system's social network. Physical connectivity is one factor that determines the social network. It constrains which nodes can interact with each other and the capacity of their information exchange. In work published in 2005, [Page 848]George A. Barnett and Han Woo Park found that the structure of the international hyperlink network (the social network) was, in part, determined by the bandwidth connections (the connectivity network) among 47 countries.

Telecommunication networks may be examined from both perspectives. The connectivity network determines who can communicate with whom. From this point of view, inquiries look into who is a member of the network and who is not, who has access to the networks' information resources, what are their characteristics and how do they differ from those without access, and if a node's location in the physical network determines with whom it may communicate and in what capacity. Studying the generalized pattern of social exchange allows one to ask questions about how telecommunication networks are used: For what purposes and to exchange what content are the networks employed? And what are the implications of their use for individuals, organizations, or larger social systems that are served by the telecommunication networks under investigation?

Who Uses Telecommunications Networks

Geographically, access to telecommunication is positively associated with household density. People and institutions in urban areas have greater access than individuals in rural areas. On a national level, population density and the total size of the urban population are positively related to the adoption of telecommunications, in part because it is easier and less expensive (per capita) to build an information infrastructure in a large, densely populated area. Urban areas also have public telecommunications in schools, libraries, community centers, and Internet cafés that promote low-cost Internet use.

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