Digitization

Digitalization means that all of the formerly distinct content types are reduced to a stream of binary ones and zeroes, which can be carried by any delivery platform. In practical terms, this means not only that specific boundaries &mdash; between a telephone network and a cable system, for example &mdash; are blurred, but also that the very exercise of drawing any such boundaries must be fundamentally reconsidered or abandoned.

Digitalization has been occurring for decades. The long-distance telephone network in the United States is now almost entirely comprised of digital switches and fiber optic transmission links. These digital facilities, however, have been optimized to transport a single service -- voice. The Internet, by contrast, can transmit any form of data. Internet protocols are sufficiently flexible to overcome the boundaries between voice and other services. Innovators can develop new services and immediately load them onto the existing Internet infrastructure.