By: Jon Anderson

We’ve all heard it said that ‘change is good for us’. When I was a youngster I remember my mother telling me that a spoon full of cod liver oil is ‘good for you’ ….but that didn’t help it go down any easier. We’ve also heard it said that if we aren’t careful we can get ‘stuck in a rut’ and that ‘a rut is just a grave with the ends kicked out’.

I wonder if Judge Greene had all the changes we’ve seen in the market place in mind when he made his infamous Modified Final Judgment ruling on 01/01/1984……or if he would roll over in his grave if could see what’s resulted? While the whole world continues to engineer and create new capabilities through technology research and innovations at a rate that surely must be unsustainable, how many of the changes turn out to be good for all mankind and should we reflect and try to measure this metric or not?

As we read and experience more ‘social networking’ what is the impact to our society, individuals’ and national identities? Have we created or solved social issues or should we care? In my 37 year telecommunications career, I have certainly been a part of some really exciting changes. From displacement of Magneto phones, Common Battery, glass insulators on cross arms, Rotary Dial Offices, Touch Tone (DTMF), POT s (Plain Old Telephone Service), and now copper plant by fiber optics, most of our world is taking part in fiber, cellular, and Internet services that include voice, data, and video along with RSS Feeds, Blue Tooth Linkage to our cars, Tweets & Twitters, Facebooks, Linked In, and who knows what’s next!

While traveling this week I noticed that Alaska Airlines Magazine is now advertising airborne WiFi (field trialing now on Alaska Airlines)! My fellow Telecommunications industry friends, we can realistically expect rapid changes to continue/accelerate with announcements of WiMax, 3G/4G, LTE, FTTH-GPON, and soon 3D TV deployments! Maybe with the economy in the tank right now we can all take a deep breath for a few minutes to reflect, absorb, and hopefully conclude that at least for our Telecommunications Industry, “Change is good for us”! Twitter on!