Over the past decade or so, national and international telecommunication have been undergoing a dramatic evolution and transformation in regard to technology, application, scale and public policy. One of the foremost driving forces is the liberalization of the telecommunication market from monopolistic or government controlled structures. This shift in public policy has set the stage for the emergence of new enterprises that compete fiercely in the telecommunications market place. A further accelerating factor in this period of change has been the rapid innovation in digital technology that continues to perfect the movement and management of information to increasingly higher levels of performance and reliability. At the same time, the immense thrust in digital processing capability with its ever-decreasing cost spawns new applications and services almost daily. Prime examples are the phenomenal growth of mobile communications and new wireless systems as well as the increasing number of corporate communication networks. Still two more potent agents in this progressive transformation must be mentioned: these are the enormous expansion of world trade along with the ending of the cold war. Clearly, both factors are driving the telecommunications market to a new, truly global scale.