The emergence of the `network company´

British Telecom has been providing networking products to its customers for nearly twenty years. The market for these products has seen dramatic changes in the last few years. The early multiplexers available only a few years ago compare very unfavourably-in terms of both features and appearance-with today´s sophisticated products. Like most items of electronic equipment they have also dropped in price. As a result of this and the parallel developments in price and availability of computing power a number of companies have been able to install major telecommunications or computer networks and use them in a way which fundamentally changes the nature of their business. These are `network companies´ for whom telecommunications have assumed a strategic priority