Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0072/00728.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 19KB | 325 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00728}
$Pretitle{408}
$Title{Canada
Chapter 3D.   Communications}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Ivan P. Fellegi}
$Affiliation{Statistics Canada}
$Subject{canada
communications
radio
information
telephone
per
cent
stations
telecommunications
canadians}
$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Country:     Canada
Book:        Canada Handbook
Author:      Ivan P. Fellegi
Affiliation: Statistics Canada
Date:        1990

Chapter 3D.   Communications

     Communications play a central role in the lives of Canadians. In the
past, communications helped overcome barriers of vast distance and rugged
terrain in order to develop rich natural resources in Canada. Today,
Canadians rely increasingly on the creation and communication of information
as a source of jobs, wealth and social progress.

     In 1986, information workers (those engaged in processing, analyzing
and distributing information) accounted for nearly half of Canada's total
employment - evidence that Canada is being transformed into an
information-based society. This shift is of comparable historical significance
to our earlier transition from an agricultural to an industrial society.

     Communications services are changing, as a result of technological
advances. Telecommunications and computer technologies are now converging into
the new field of information technology. The unified system of computers and
communications that is being created is like a network of electronic highways
transporting the information on which we depend.

     The benefits of information technology are familiar to many Canadians.
For example, at more than 5,000 automated teller machines across the country,
Canadians can make bank deposits, withdraw cash and pay bills at any hour of
day or night. Many retail stores have cash registers connected to computer
systems that automatically update inventory records at the end of every
business day.

     Taxis can now be dispatched by computer messages appearing on the screen
of small mobile data terminals similar to those used by police forces.
Librarians search electronically for bibliographic references, and airline
agents consult flight schedules and make reservations using computer
communication systems.

     Private companies and public institutions are also making increasing use
of information technology. Office workers are now using electronic
workstations to perform a variety of tasks such as word processing, financial
analysis, storing and retrieving information, consulting remote data bases,
and communicating text, numbers and graphics.

     In assembly-line plants, computer-controlled robots help to manufacture
cars and industrial machinery. The forest-products industry relies on computer
systems to direct the sizing and cutting of logs for maximum economy.

     Hydro networks monitor their transmission grids using information
automatically collected at checkpoints throughout the system and fed back
along communications lines to major control centres.

     Canada has become a world leader in information technology in the fields
of health care and education. Long-distance medical examinations and the
remote diagnosing of health problems are available in certain parts of Canada.
Much of the pioneering work was performed at Memorial University of
Newfoundland, which has been extensively involved in the development of
satellite-based health care delivery systems. This Canadian technology is
being shared with countries in Africa and the Caribbean.

     Pioneering work in educational broadcasting and other forms of
tele-education has included using communications to deliver computer-aided
courses or to permit consultation between teachers and students in different
locations. In recognition of Canada's expertise in this area, both the
Commonwealth and La Francophonie have requested that Canada take the lead in
developing distance learning centres and television program services for the
benefit of their member nations.

     In 1986, 10 per cent of Canadian households had home computers (not
counting computers used exclusively for business or games). The number of home
computers is growing every year. Word processing and spreadsheet programs are
the most popular applications, but as more Canadians buy computers, new
opportunities are opening up for exchanging information and conducting
business transactions.

     In 1988, two commercial services tailored to the market for interactive
consumer services were introduced in the Montreal area. Bell Canada's system,
called ALEX, is based on computer graphics technology developed in the 1970s
by the Department of Communications' researchers under the name Telidon. The
competing MINITEL system uses French technology. Both systems feature
easy-to-operate terminals about the size of a small TV set. Bell expects that
16,000 customers will rent terminals while another 4,000 subscribers will
adapt their own personal computers to the system. Telidon is already serving a
variety of applications in countries around the world, from answering tourist
inquiries to analyzing the stock market and providing weather briefings for
pilots.

     In 1986, the computer and telecommunications industries spent about $1
billion on R&D - about 30 per cent of total industrial R&D spending in Canada.
Almost one-quarter of this work was performed by Bell Canada Enterprises, the
balance carried out by other companies, universities and government
laboratories.

     Communications Canada, a department of the federal government, operates
Canada's largest program devoted to long-term applied research in
communications and information technology. Over the years, the department's
laboratories have achieved many significant advances in satellite and
fibre-optic communications as well as major improvements in radio technology.
A current focus of research efforts is on designing a small pilot-less
microwave-powered aircraft to serve as an inexpensive alternative to a
satellite. The Stationary High Altitude Relay Platform (SHARP), successfully
demonstrated in 1987, would retransmit radio signals over large areas and
could bring greater communications coverage to countries or businesses unable
to afford satellites.

     Complementing R&D programs in Canada are tests and trials to encourage
people to explore ways they can use both new and established technologies.

     Communications planners are now laying the groundwork for development of
our networks to bring the information age within the reach of all Canadians.
The Canadian communications system is already largely digital. In digital
communications, signals are transmitted in pulses (the language of computers)
instead of the earlier mode of continuous waves, as used in analogue
transmission. Digital communications can carry much larger amounts of
information for longer distances with less distortion. The goal is a system
that will permit end-to-end digital communication of voice, data and video.
Instead of using one network for telephone, another for high-speed data and a
third for broadcasting, Canadians will, in future, be able to access all
telecommunications services through a single outlet similar to a telephone
jack.

     The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) of the future is not a
separate new communications system. It is a concept that will unify existing
networks through the application of international standards which Canada is
helping to develop. The first phase of ISDN is based on using the copper wires
that now connect the individual subscribers to the networks. This would permit
a customer, for example, to simultaneously place a telephone call and
establish a high-speed data communications link. The real impact will be felt
in the second phase, with the installation of optical fibres. Instead of the
electromagnetic waves or pulses used in copper wires, optical fibres use light
to carry information. They are capable of carrying amounts of information so
much greater than either telephone lines or coaxial cables that a customer
could pl