Communication

How ICT has had an impact on Communication

Communication has always been a key part of our lives and they way we communicate which each other has changed enormously over the years. E-mail, chat, SMS and digital voice and mobile videophones have rapidly become the way we all communicate in the 21st century. In 2004 there were more than 40 million mobile phones in the UK and over 30000 base stations. People can now work anywhere, play anywhere and keep in touch with everyone - anywhere. We can now communicate much more, more quickly and more globally.

 Mobile phones

Home screen for Iphone



ICT has had a huge impact on mobile and telephones. Just 20 years ago mobile phones were carried in brief cases and used to cost a lot of money for what they were. Nowdays, you can pick up a mobile with internet connectivity, E-mail, instant messenger and much more for little over £100. With the internet people can also download apps such as skype and IM, this allows them to communicate with people around the world for free, there may be a price to download some apps but this is one of few drawbacks of the mobile phone. Phones also allow people to take photos or videos with cameras which exceed some of the more cheaper digital cameras which their purpose is to take pictures. You are able to share these features either by text or uploading them to the internet which aswell can be done straight from your phone. Some of the latest phones such as the iPhone4 have touch screen technology this is very popular to the public as its a very advanced piece of technology and probably the equivilant to any laptop on the market at the moment.

E-mail

E-mail is one of the biggest things to come out of the internet. In 2001 it was estimated that 12 thousand million messages were sent daily and that by 2003 there were 31 thousand million sent every day. The reasons for this are to do with the massive benefits email can bring to individuals and businesses.

1. Email is effective in providing quick answers to yes and no, type questions. This is helpful when you want to ask someone across the other side of the world a simple quick question for free. For example, If you are purchasing something from eBay then you can ask quick questions about the product you are able to purchase.  
2. Email is effective in finding the right person in an organisation or company to answer your question.
3. Email is good to make appointments for busy people.
4. Email can distribute information quickly to many people for the time it takes to email one person. This is good for a business as they do not need to hand write out every single message that they need to send in the post. It is also free so you do not need to pay for postage.

The major, overall advantage of Email is that it is completely free apart from you internet bill, which even that is rapidly decreasing in price as time goes on. However, providers are trying to find ways of charging for servies that have traditionally been free. Apart from this, there are some slight drawbacks of Email.

1. Email can become timeconsuming for answering complicated questions and misunderstandings can arise because cultural differences in the interpretation of certain words. The telephone, is much better for providing detailed answers or if you feel that the question is not absolutely clear.
2. Email can compromise the security of an organisation because sensitive information can be easily distributed accidently or deliberately. Email should be entrusted to well trained and trusted staff members.
3. Email can become impersonal or misunderstood.
4. The use of pronouns can lead to serious misunderstandings. Users should always try to write the full description rather than abbreviate their sentences with pronouns.

One of the major drawbacks of Email is spam or junk mail. These are emails sent from 3rd party organisations that have nothing to do with you as a person. They are often trying to advertise or sell you something. Most estimates suggest that betweeen 30 per cent and 40 per cent of all Email sent is junk.

Skype

Similarly to email, there are video conferencing sites such as skype. Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features which include instant messaging, file transfer, and video conferencing. 

SkypeOut allows Skype users to call traditional phone numbers, including mobile phones, for a fee.  It allows Skype users to receive calls on their computers dialed by regular phone subscribers to a Skype-provided phone number. The number need not be in the same location as the user. For example, a user in Southend could create a local telephone number in Helsinki. Callers in Helsinki could then make a local call to reach that user. I have found Skype  very useful in the past contacting people that i have not seen for a long period of time. It was also helpful just chatting to friends online.

News Stories

Skype files for $100m US flotation

Skype says it has 560 million registered users

Internet phone firm Skype has filed for an initial public offering in the US.

The Luxembourg-based company hopes to raise up to $100m (£63m) in the stock market flotation.
Skype will sell American Depositary Shares - which represent shares in foreign companies - and expects to trade on the Nasdaq index.
Skype's software lets computer and mobile phone users talk to each other for free and make cut-price calls to mobiles and landlines.
The company did not specify when its shares would go on sale, or at what price.
According to the regulatory filing, in the first half of 2010 Skype had 560 million registered users, who logged 95 billion minutes of voice and video calls.

O2 yet to resolve iPhone data roaming glitchs

 

The mobile operator O2 says it is still investigating iPhone customer complaints that they have been wrongly charged for data roaming while abroad.

Customers have complained that the switch that deactivates data roaming doesn't work, a fault O2 was first made aware of in May.
Neither of the other UK networks that carry the iPhone, Orange and Vodafone, says it has been hit with the problem.
Apple forum posts suggest the problem may lie with O2's "visual voicemail".
The fault can cause big bills for customers who receive emails and web pages when they are overseas - even though they didn't choose to receive them.
The default setting on the iPhone should prevent data from loading up abroad. However, customers on the Apple and other forums are complaining that e-mails and web pages are sometimes downloading when they are abroad - even when the data roaming setting is off.
O2 says it is "investigating these reports with Apple".