Different expressions and new words are being forged in the literature - 'networked territories', 'electronic spaces', 'postmodern hyperspace', 'cyberspace', 'virtual space', 'virtual corporations', 'virtual communities', 'new social space', 'electronic agora', 'networld'...

This trend leads us to postulate that Information and Communication Technologies (ITC) "that Information and Communication Technologies (ITC)" _ have significant effects on the human and social environment. The geographical environment of all economic actors (citizens, firms, local governments, State governments, etc.) is already - and will be in the near future strongly modified by this technological revolution. Indeed, this realization is evolving quickly after being un-noticed for a long time:the convergence in three industrial sectors (computers; telecommunication networks; TV Media) has permitted new technological possibilities and the emergence of cyberspace;

firms are using networks at both local and global levels;

telecommunication operators as well as states, regions and town governments are interested in the creation of communication networks and teleports;

a growing number of citizens are using personal computers to access the Internet;

economic handicaps for 'off-liners' and the 'information poor' have been studied extensively by international organizations (UIT and UNESCO 1995).

But is the postulate true? What becomes of territories, of cities, of regions, in an era dominated by electronic networks and information flows? How will development of various forms of tele-activities (teletransactions, tele-ordering, tele-action, telework etc.) as well as the increasing use of cyberspace impact local development, regional management and the evolution of organizations and domestic life? What can we expect from these technical, tariff and legal developments in terms of their spatial organization? With geographic space (geospace), distance plays the major role. The consequence is that different places have different 'value'. For instance: the city economy is the heart of its hinterland, city centers are graded in a multi-level hierarchy (as in the Christaller and Lšsch models); peripheries are less developed. On the contrary, with cyberspace, the non-geospace territories built on information electronic networks and without time constraints, it is time instead of distance which plays the central role. The world becomes accessible in 'real time' and user communication is not direct with other users but rather is a communication through an interface such as facsimile, e-mail, voice mail, WWW servers, etc.). The nature of cyberspace has its origins in:

the shrinking of distance permitted by the use of telecommunications (mainly data processing and worldwide TV channels but more generally the integrated transmission of multimedia sound, text, data and image);

the consequence of world e-mail and Internet networks (WWW);

the introduction of videoconferencing and other multimedia services over the Internet.

The notion of cyberspace refers to a society where the technical interface is ever-present. The communication process may be very efficient between two users, one from Europe and the second from California, but the process is necessarily a time-interfaced communication. With reliable networks, high-speeds make the entire globe immediately accessible. The advent of quasi-instant transmission means we are no longer witnessing a mere evolution of communication characterized by increased speed (e.g. rail and air transport). Cyberspace, on the contrary, is a kind of space where a state of 'effective discontinuity' characterizes the spatio-temporal scales of increasingly convergent information, telecommunication, computer and image transmission technologies. But along with time, the notion of space is changing as well. It becomes unimportant for the users. With the web, it is the nature of the problem-solving process that is important and not the place from where the needed information is obtained. One makes a mistake to view traditional geography as reduced to only a geography of surfaces and of contiguous spaces; it has always dealt with relationships. Did the ancient Greek historian-geographer Herodotus not already describe in his time the Persian postal network and its relays? In modern times, the geography of transport, trade and services, has not only been an approach to understanding infrastructures and localities, but also to analyzing the relationships and interaction between distant areas considered on various scales. In the non-material field of information and data exchange, the difference between the geography of distance and the geography of temporal accessibility is increasing. This interaction is also differentiated from that which has always existed between areas as measured by the growth of volumes of information transmitted, and hence by the new existence of fragmented organizations structurally dependent on the intensity, regularity and mass of the information exchanged. The time factor becomes strategic in the search for competitiveness, given the globalization of markets and the new emerging relationships between markets and systems of production (e.g. logistic chains, just-in-time). A key parameter in productivity gains - the control of time through geographic space - becomes an indispensable condition of global functioning. After the conquest of geographic space (the 1492 Great discoveries, the development of mass transit, development of telecommunications, and exploration of the Cosmos and the oceans), the control of time through distance now permits a new functional integration in production and logistics (Paché 1988 & 1990, Paché et al 1993). Work is becoming increasingly dematerialized. It becomes possible to work at any time (during the night, the weekends, the holidays) and any place. The telework can be done not only in offices but also in any place: when driving a car, eating in a restaurant, resting in one's home. Personal telephone services and e-mail follow us when traveling overseas. All we need is the access to the network, a password and funds to pay the network operators for their services. It can be said we are evolving towards a greater 'spatio-temporal fluidity of work'. Many of today's managers spend as much time on the telephone in their cars as they do in their offices. New generations of equipment accompany this trend. They consist of devices which have the advantage of being portable, owing to miniaturization in electronics (e.g. portable microcomputers), but also in telecommunications. At first, in the mid-seventies, this concerned remote access to a company computer for consulting or entering data. Today, telecommunications systems with mobiles are increasing in numbers and are spreading. Examples include the radio-telephone, portable message systems, telephones in trains and airplanes. What will be the consequences of the emerging changes due to cyberspace on the spatial organization of firms, local, regional and state governments as well as on daily life? Can the NCTs transform a geographic region at a given moment, and if so, in what way? Will these developments modify the conditions of sector and territorial interdependence at local, regional, national and global levels? In the economic fabric of towns, will the advantages of spatial contiguity be weakened? Local elected representatives, planners and researchers are implicitly interested in the specific effects of telecommunications on regional and economic development, on changes on progress. Is the articulation of towns on a national and European scale changing? If the answer is yes, this might compound the existing inequality between urban areas and thereby have a twofold influence on local development. The local level could be positively effected by prompting firms to choose areas based on their telecommunications resources and infrastructure. Can the local level be harmed by the consequences of global relocation? This chapter wishes to review these issues in the light of literature on telecommunications geography (telephone, telematic). In so doing, we will make a distinction between several classes of authors who write about how communication networks effect territories: minimalists, moderates, utopian maximalists, realistic maximalists. Our conclusion will be that geospace and cyberspace are both involved in an emerging process of fusion - a new geographic reality we can call 'geocyberspace'. The nature of the role and the specific advantages of telecommunications in the context of regional development and location of activities still have to be clearly defined. Can we identify new dynamism at the regional and enterprise levels due to new cyberspace facilities and flows (sounds, data, images)? Do we owe to telecommunications the appearance of new dynamics in the development of regional communities and firms? The aim of this chapter is not to provide a definitive answer to this question, but rather to synthesize the main results obtained from research conducted over the past fifteen years. Study of the relationship between telecommunications and regional development has for a long time experienced difficulty influencing government planning policy. There are several ways of approaching the problem of relations between telecommunications and regional structures. 'Attempts to grasp direct links - of the type: impact on the location of activities, forms of work, mobility of people, social forms, etc. - have always led to failure or semi-failure' (Rowe & Veltz 1991). The latter approach the question differently by looking at change within organizations of production and exchange; in fact preference has been shown for studying corporate communications by regional economists and communication geographers (Planque 1986, Bakis 1987 & 1988, Hepworth 1989). Exchange on a regional level has been analyzed through patterns of telephone traffic. Effects on economic development have spawned a number of studies. The relationship between towns and telecommunications constitutes a promising field recognized as being important. The relationship between rural areas and telecommunications, however, is a field that remains still largely unstudied. There is a continuous undervaluation of interest with the result being very few researchers. Teaching of this subject is far too rare on a University level but an expanding literature since the 1980s._The issue of the location of activities has been debated for a long time (Weber 1929), as has that of the structuring effect of transport networks on regional development. The same type of questioning has arisen with the development of telecommunication networks. Through the development of telematics 'we rediscover ... debates on territorial 'homogenization' and 'hierarchization', centralization and decentralization, spawned by the development of transport infrastructures. Around these debates we find the same question: what is the potential impact of the development of new communication infrastructures on the location of economic activities?' (Begag et al. 1990). Telecommunications networks are assuming new significance in the context of economic globalization and have profoundly changed space and time. Yet can this be a positive factor favoring regional development? What is the impact of telecommunications on local development? The notion of local development cannot be limited to the economic sphere alone; it also encompasses culture, education, and services for the public (e.g. the creation of a multimedia center can serve schools). Telecommunications permit the appearance of complementarity, of interaction in real time which did not exist - and technically could not have existed - a decade ago. Development of electronic communication networks has made possible interpenetration of distant areas. Furthermore, the advent of mobile communications has focused communication not around a place, but around an individual who has, despite his or her movements, become the node of a network (radiotelephony, transfer of phone calls, teletransactions from a portable computer etc.). Observers are divided over the role of telecommunications in local and regional economic development. Three positions exist. For some (minimalists), the territorial impact of telecommunications networks is limited, insufficient and unspecified. They argue that even if telecommunications networks are able to prevent certain areas from being at a disadvantage compared to others, they are totally inadequate alone to promote development. For others (more moderate), the territorial impact of telecommunications networks is potentially significant and even radical, but depends on other factors and often appears paradoxical since these networks favor centralization. Finally, for some (maximizers), a total territorial revolution is underway, based on the disappearance of the constraints of geographic distance. The minimalists standpoint - an imprecise, inadequate and limited role This first possible standpoint on regional impact of telecommunications is very general and minimalist. Regional development is inseparable from economic activity and such activity is dependent on telecommunications infrastructures and services, increasingly so for some sectors. The telephone, facsimile, telematics and a number of other telecommunication services have become essential home and business tools. Many ordinary activities no longer seem possible without them, including manufacturing (organization of production between several sites, logistics, zero stock levels, etc.) and transport logistics. In this standpoint, the territorial impact of telecommunications networks is limited. Even if telecommunications networks can prevent certain areas from being penalized compared to others, alone they are totally inadequate to promote development: they are simply pointing to the existing organization of space._Penalization vis-ˆ-vis other sites or regions avoidedA region is penalized vis-ˆ-vis other regions if its communication network is not at the same level (technologies, quality of the service, tariffs). The minimalist position agues such penalization is avoided if the telecommunications infrastructure is at the same level as in other parts of the country or in a larger spatial entity. Yet, if their absence penalizes a region, that does not mean the existence of networks will endow it with new competitive advantages vis-ˆ-vis other regions. Network evolution is taking place at a rapid rate:

technologies are changing from analog to digital and users' equipment is becoming more sophisticated and capable;

the topology of networks is becoming more flexible (modification of the proximity of a node, of transmission capacity, service quality, reliability, switching technology, etc.). A target network is, by definition, always to be created. In the meantime, differentiation is the rule in respect of equipment;

network provider tariffs have been changing as new forms of competition have emerged.

This is the reason why the advantage may be quickly reduced if regional planning authorities are not vigilant enough to maintain their telecommunication networks. The very existence of the EC STAR program shows that in certain regions the absence of a telecommunications network can be a handicap. In 1984 an action-program for the telecommunications sector was approved in order to diminish the regional imbalances and unequal opportunities faced by the poorer parts of Europe (Lauder 1990, Grimes 1992). The program was aimed at promoting services and networks in less developed regions of the European Community. Five Action Lines summarize the efforts undertaken:

Action Line 1: launch a coordination plan for networks, telecommunications services development, and common infrastructure projects

Action Line 2: create a Community-wide market for telecommunications terminals and equipment

Action Line 3: launch a development program to identify technologies required in the long-term for the establishment of broadband network services

Action Line 4: improve access for the less favored regions of the Community to benefit from the development of advanced services and networks

Action Line 5: recognizes the need for Europe to speak with one voice at the international level (Lauder 1990).

Necessary but insufficient for development For several authors, the role of telecommunications is seen as providing a necessary condition for development, but not as being a factor of this development (Gillespie 1988, Salomon & Razin 1988, Hepworth 1989, Abler 1991, Kellerman 1993). Kellerman considers that in no way does the mere existence of telecommunications guarantee regional development., even if these 'constitute a basic condition for development, like transport infrastructures'._ Any sustained delay in wiring a region could result in economic weakness which may become structural and therefore difficult to change. It therefore seems urgent for regional authorities or organizations responsible for regional development, to help equip those areas which want to be economically active. This point of view agrees with Goddard who stressed: 'Regional policies for the information economy will certainly be different to those for the industrial economy or the enterprise economy' (Goddard 1992). Rather than a basic factor, Verlaque also sees in telecommunications 'an indispensable condition, even an advantage'. But he goes further, describing 'small steps' likely to make the difference between rival locations. He writes: 'the excellence of an infrastructure can also be the little extra which, beyond an identical origin, favors a "tertiary platform" in relation to a competitor' (Verlaque 1990). It is also the position of Begag et al.: 'For an infrastructure to intervene in the choice of a locality, such equipment must either be available in a limited number of places, or its costs must be far lower in these places than elsewhere, or its costs must constitute a large slice of the production costs of the relevant economic activity' (Begag et al. 1990). Industrialized countries generally do not allow this type of factor to intervene, since the availability of infrastructures for transmitting data is relatively good in large cities. The role of telecommunications is not automatic, it is merely potential. The desired effects depend on other factors whose importance is often under-estimated. An example might be various political factors such as the policies of national, regional or economic authorities. The 'political variable' must be distinguished from the 'telecommunications variable', otherwise only part of the problem will be understood. We see a new element in the field of regional development in the notion of 'potentialities for interactions' made possible by telecommunications. Various authors share this view.

An indirect impact on firms through their productivity.
Although it is an indirect effect, in the corporation, the impact of communication and information technologies is assessed primarily on how it improves productivity. Telecommunications permit 'access to all types of markets, whether these are clientele - notably external - or capital markets, for which the actualization and permanent availability of information is fundamental' (Verlaque 1994). The role of telecommunications in competition seems perfectly understood by firms, even small and medium-sized ones (Wackermann 1993).

A new role inferred from the fact that information is considered a factor of production. A new role for telecommunications in local and regional development has emerged because information itself is now considered to be a factor of production (Bakis 1983, Saunders et al. 1983). The case of Siemens is an example: it has developed a policy of partnership with the customer based on constant exchange of information in order to define the design of a future product likely to satisfy the customer's requirements. In this way the relationship between Siemens and its customers is greatly deepened. On the other hand, it is also necessary to adapt this market strategy to technical constraints. On-going dialogue is thus established between the technical department which determines the product as it can be, and the marketing department which defines the product as it has to be. The utopian maximalists standpoint Utopian maximalists transfer the characteristics of a technology to an analysis of social evolution. Since telecommunications allows 'real time' frictionless data transport over any distance it helps generate new models in spatial and social organization:

intercontinental 'solidarity' and social continuity in the global village;

imminence of a new age;

a new urban age;

solutions to the urban and energy crisis (substitution to transport);

solutions to the less favored regions of the Developed Countries (localization of activities);

a new rural society (Goldmark in Begag et al. 1990).

Today, these views can be reinforced thanks to the evolution of personal mobile communication, especially since the relationship between utopia and reality is more complex than it seems. Submarines and moon-landings are realities of our century, yet they seemed no more than dreams when Jules Vernes wrote about them. Current development projects for global telecommunications coverage (Iridium by Motorola, Globalstar by Qualcomm and Alcatel, Odyssey by TRW) are inspired by the dream of a terminal both mobile and universal. Projects are taking shape today with the proposition of a worldwide network of 840 small satellites (Teledesic) placed on a low orbit of 700 kilometers in 2001._Even before modifying any organization of space, the new information and communication technologies (NICT) are part of a sphere already highly differentiated given the heterogeneity of populations and unequal distribution of industrial and tertiary activities in neighborhoods, towns, regions, countries and continents. The disparity of economic or social factors in different territories is an unavoidable fact stemming from historical social organization of the world. The geography of telecommunications clearly shows - as if it were necessary - that telecommunications networks and equipment likewise correspond to existing territorial organization. Utopian visions have nevertheless emerged from the new conditions spawned by telecommunications. Yet, location can almost always be explained by the meeting of two fields: the region's historical legacy, and that of the exchange relationships between places. Despite the telecommunications revolution, it is not easy to eliminate the local advantages and endowments of a successful area. Relationships between places are not enough by themselves to determine location. The realization of location requires the 'meeting of two fields', including the characteristics peculiar to the places. This may seem obvious and in a sense it is, but the risk of utopias is so great that it should be emphasized. The myth of homogeneity of geographic space is not dead: based mainly on the fact that constraints of kilometric distance have been reduced by the instantaneous access provided by telecommunications. 'At first there is the simple idea that, by removing the last physical limits to the scope of microcellular telephones and the cell of radiotelephones, the satellite link may definitively free the user of the obligation to be present in a socially appropriate place'._ Homo communicans is characterized by a triple universality: a number for each person, the use of common networks, and access to the entire planet. Homo communicans is at the intersection of references borrowed from three spheres: that of communication with the 'global village' invented by McLuhan, that of regional development and that of geopolitics (Moeglin et al. 1994). The material conditions for realizing these systems do not yet exist on a global scale. Technical incompatibility, the heterogeneity of zones of coverage and the persistence of disparities in procedures or tariffs all complicate building a seamless system._ It would, however, be excessive (and wrong) to believe that regional homogeneity can depend on the availability of telecommunications alone. In addition to basic access, tariffs and the quality of services, including maintenance, play a major role. Reliability also becomes a major constraint when the economic system is increasingly dependent on the robustness of telecommunications. Thought on the territorial impact of telecommunications for a long time was neglected by researchers (Bakis 1982). Once it started to develop, such thought was imbued by the notion of territorial equivalence and led to what critics called 'analytical mutism' and 'analytical illusion' (Begag et al. 1990). Many argue that since the spatial and temporal availability of telecommunications infrastructures are said to lead to the homogeneity of geographic space, spatial dispersion, in a sense the very object of geography, is buried. Such a view, however, ignores the fact that time and distance have not disappeared in telecommunications. Through consumption costs they provide the parameters for establishing tariffs for the different networks. The fact is obvious and sufficient proof of it exists; one need only consider publications in the field of tariff geography. A study of traffic flow shows that a definite sphere of telephone use exists (which is mainly local). A study of the statistics of the distribution of equipment (fax, electronic mail terminals, etc.) shows the reality of local and regional disparities. As if it were necessary, the first negotiations on the cable plan in France (1982) showed that regional equality was impossible. Given the framework imposed in the budget process, it is always necessary to choose a particular area or town for a network. A considerable risk exists of diverging from reality by over reliance on hypothetical forecasts. When this happens, space comes to be seen as being neutral, transparent, homogeneous or formed by a collection of 'points'. Society is seen as declining, becoming simulated, even virtual, accessible only by means of increasingly efficient telecommunications. An example of this is the idea of systems permitting 'pseudo-real televirtuality' (New desktop teleconferencing technologies for instance, or, CU-SeeMe in the late 1990s). It has been forecast that several fields will be profoundly affected by the 'territorial revolution' at the end of the twentieth century, including processes governing the location of activities, the movement of people and goods, and urban development. The disappearance of constraints related to time and space has led some to perceive a very real territorial revolution characterized by the emergence of space without distance, the 'deterritorialization' of trade and the instantaneity of relations. If this happens, models and behavior of territorial agents will inevitably have to be rethought. Alghouth various projects have been developed to develop strategies to cope with change, in fact such substitution is not self-evident. Believing in its inevitability would be giving technology a major role to play in economic and social evolution - which would be an erroneous and unfortunate shortcut. The interaction between technologies and societies is far more complex. Rooted in such logic are bold discourses and forecasts regarding: telework (generally excessive, they scarcely define the concept) and the end of daily commuting; the substitution of telecommunications for transport and for trade (telepurchasing); the move of cities to the countryside, and others. By 1958 the American architect Wright had already put forth theories on the totally dispersed city (Broadacre) of which all elements would be linked by communication networks and telephone lines. In 1972 a project for a New Rural Society appeared. The propensity to imagine a territorial future based on NICT resulted in the launching of several Japanese projects in the eighties such as Teletopia and Intelligent City. They were implemented by the Japanese government and local authorities with a displayed objective: the creation of super-computerized future cities. These projects are based on the vision of an alternative geography to make it possible to replace the functions provided 'until now' by urban centers. Certain hopes for dispersion have been far-fetched, given the prevailing ecological and socio-economic conditions. Geographical space is differentiated space, the outcome of a long process of organization by different agents including the State. It is this progressive organization of space which builds a territory._ We know that the strict equality of regions is a myth, that geographic space is not neutral and that telecommunications will not change this characteristic. On the contrary, a territory (an area organized by and for a society) is constituted by means of a hierarchical structure. For geographers, space has never been made up merely of a collection of points. Inequalities and 'geographic centers of gravity' are taken for granted, for without differentiation there would be no territories and no geography. Nor can geographic space be conceived of by ignoring the multiple scales which constitute the notion. Nevertheless, over time development of communication systems on continental or global scales (e.g. fast transport, mass transport, telecommunications, media) do effectively 'homogenize' space world-wide. The new information and communication technologies fall within an existing organization of space which emphasizes the role of the world metropolis and the existence of dominant economic regions in a country. The postulate of the 'homogenization' of space is particularly naive when it is thought that use of telecommunications leads to the disappearance of territorial inequalities. Geographic centers of gravity are seen in territorial inequalities which existed before telecommunications and which will remain no matter what efforts are made by the most committed telecommunications service providers to provide a public service e.g. through tariffs calculated as fairly as possibly and in some cases independently of the distance, as is the case with postal services; or the rapid implementation of services and accessibility to global networks throughout the territory served. The moderates standpoint It would be na•ve to believe in the structuring and 'revolutionary' omnipotence of a single means of communication for profoundly reorganizing territories. Yet certain effects are possible and should be appreciated. The improvement of transport technology (for people, goods and information) provokes a sort of contraction of geographical space, notably that of firms. The result is:

a new possibility for those firms which takes full advantage of current means to relocate diverse activities in distant centers without the burden of exorbitant expenses. Such firms improve their profit margins and gain a competitive edge;

a new possibility for operating in a business network on a regional scale. That seems to be the case with the scattered micro-nurseries in the Lorraine region in France, which benefited from subsized telematic links between themselves. But were telematics the decisive factor in the operation and success of these undertakings?

Most expect the stimulation of additional regional dynamism due to telecommunications technology as well as the appearance of new development opportunities for local firms and regional authorities. According to this view, this will result in improved competitiveness, improved cooperation exchanges at the international level, increased flexibility and rationalization of exchanges and establishment of new enterprises. It seems inevitable, therefore, that telecommunications can influence regional development. Since the industrial revolution it has been necessary to minimize production costs by manipulating the location of activities. According to classical and neo-classical economists, the location of activities is determined by the relative prices of production factors (capital, raw materials, labor), market areas, and transport costs. Thus, in economic theories on the location of activities and territorial equality, the minimization of transport costs was always central in economic analysis (Von ThŸnen 1826, Weber 1929, Lšsch 1951). In the nineteenth century, as in the first half of the twentieth century, transport costs played a major part in production costs. It was therefore necessary to invest in road networks in order to reduce the constraints of distance (Begag et al., 1990). 'These theoretical models stipulated that public investments intended to reduce transport costs could generate the economic development of regions penalized because of their lack of centrality'. Can we apply the same type of reasoning to telecommunications infrastructures, without raising exaggerated hopes? How do telecommunications contribute effectively to a shift from the former logic based on vertical integration and concentration of activities to the new logic of the network organization based on externalization of activities, dependence on the economic environment, and multiplication of relations between suppliers and partners etc.? Although telecommunications are not the agents of a total territorial revolution, they have a specific impact on the organization of economic activities and hence on the territorial functioning of the latter. If a local elected representative or a director of a local development firm wants to be ridiculed, he need only ask: 'What sort of cable or what type of telecommunications service should I install in my canton to create 100 new jobs?' Formulated in this way, the question may be irrelevant since it relies on a category of equipment for the solution to problems of a social nature. Success in the field of regional economic development implies a more diversified range of action, over and above the implementation of telecommunications. The search for structuring effects In geography, the line of inquiry has for a long time been focused on the search for structuring effects, to the point where excessive hopes led to a belief in a real revolution in factors of production and location. This search was based on the substitution of telecommunications for transport. It is an exaggeration to say the main axis of telecommunications geography in the 1970s and 1980s was the search for a 'structuring effect'. Yet despite the diversity of topics and fields covered, this search was a major focus of research, if not an exclusive and dominant one. This problematic was at first partially modified in the 1980s by a more moderate approach based on the complementarity of transport and telecommunications within a global communication system. In the 1970s, when the energy crisis was at its peak, there was an inordinate amount of hope for the complete elimination of geographical disparities through telecommunications. It was supposed that territorial effects would ensue from the sum of direct individual negotiations and the use of telecommunications. The subject of substitution was thus central to any reflection on the location of activities. This hypothesis was examined using micro-economic models (Nilles et al. 1976, Bakis 1983, Claisse 1983, Salomon 1986, Husson 1993, Massot 1995). As research continued, this problematic was modified in a more restrictive sense. Moving from substitution to complementarity, the choice of actors shifted from the individual to the organization,_ as moving to the corporate level modifies the impact of individual arbitration. 'Segmentation and spatial distribution of activities in multi-establishment firms are the object of structural policies, in which communication costs are simply a factor amongst others' (Rowe & Veltz 1991).The question of the influence of these changes on regions was at the center of research during the 1980s, yet they rarely addressed questions of regional development._ What is fundamentally new today is the existence of two communication systems: transport and communication. A series of mixed relationships exists between these two systems, depending on the specific needs in communications and on costs: relationships of complementarity, competition and substitution. Only firms which have acquired new expertise can exploit the new potentialities offered by these technologies for the network organization.A potential for teleinteractionsShould we renounce studying how this infrastructure contributes to the organization and management of regions? Regional mutations owe a lot to several strong trends which ought to receive particular attention including metropolitanization, the broadening of horizons, and closer involvement in the economic sphere. Discourse needs to remain focused on the specific contribution telecommunications makes to regional economies. Should we consider the effects observed today as too tenuous to be taken seriously, or too specific to generalize? Even if we agree that the absence of telecommunications inhibits development, that does not automatically mean the mere presence of a network will enable a region to get a competitive advantages vis-ˆ-vis other regions. The key question is whether the modest effects observed ought to be ignored, or if these effects are the first signs of a general trend. We know the new conditions spawned by electronic communication permit a new international division of work. Can we then consider this applies to tertiary activities with the rapid expansion of telework?_ We do not yet have enough data to answer this question, but verification of the hypothesis is indispensable. It has economic and geographic consequences, both on the regional level and on the international level (e.g. globalization of tertiary production and integration of developing countries).It is increasingly clear today that we should work on a new problematic to go beyond the former works and to encompass technical, economic and social developments (Bakis 1996a). Too much emphasis has been laid on the possible influence of telecommunications on regions, on a significant and very biased impact such as relocation of activities or enhanced centralized control over territorially fragmented organizations. It would be more appropriate to develop a problematic aimed at identifying the more subtle effects of telecommunications on territories. In sum, with the shift of focus which we propose for telecommunications geography, we should no longer be led to a search for a 'structuring effect' of telecommunications on territories. Rather, research should be oriented towards the demonstration of new geo-economic interactions made possible by the introduction of telecommunications on all levels in the world.

Catalytic role of telecommunications making economic development possible The potential for interaction offers new degrees of freedom and opens new perspectives in the context of regional development (Bakis 1995). Telecommunications can, like transport infrastructures, permit the development of varied economic activities (Goddard and Gillespie 1986). Over and again, in countless detailed studies, its unquestioned effects are revealed. These effects concern several fields, on both a regional level and that of international firms (e.g. concentration of certain activities on specific sites (teleports), organization of work, of commercialization, of maintenance). The contribution of telecommunications to local development can often be positive without provoking the upheaval of regional territorial organization. Telecommunications permit an evolution in production, notably in inter-firm cooperation and in sub-contracting. New organizational models are characterized by the geographical dilution of industrial structures (PachŽ 1990). Do the territorial effects of telecommunications correspond to discourse on 'decentralization' and on the 'revolutionary modification' of regional management and the territorial organization of firms? Besides unrealistic expectations, more complex effects are developing, together with new relationships: between the centralization and the decentralization of functions within firms; but also on a regional level where the centers end up being strengthened after several decades of development of telecommunication networks. These effects, far from unilaterally favoring peripheral areas, strengthen former centers or new forms of territorial centralization such as teleports. The accentuation of metropolitanization results from a fundamental change in the articulation of diverse variables that influence factors of location. The current telecommunications sector - and the one forecast for the future - seems to be strategic for the evolution of national, regional and urban economies. Telecommunications has 'become strategic for an understanding of the future economic position of each country, and for the competitiveness of national, regional and urban industrial systems in the 1990s' (Capello & Nijkamp 1993)._Teleports bear witness to new forms of technological and geographical centralization. Privileged urban areas are the site of grouped activities including technopoles and teleports (Castells & Hall 1994). Despite the multiplication of projects it is clear that every teleport development project will not be implementedÊ (Briole & Lauraire 1991). These effects are felt as much on the corporate level as on the territorial level. An analysis of effects at the local and regional community level is particularly interesting, for it is on these levels we find situated several areas of simultaneous transactions:

grouping activities on privileged sites in urban areas (technopoles, teleports). A comparable process could concern local communities, with the development of micro-centers (control of information in the centers they control and from which they organize dissemination);_technical and geographical centralization in rural areas or areas with low population density, for instance the Scandinavian telecottages;centralizing activities which are based on information exchange;

remote control of dispersed activities;

centralization of decision-making (reticulate structures).

One can thus talk of the double irony of the territorial effects of telecommunications:

the aggregation of activities in areas with a concentration of sophisticated means of telecommunications, with access to different networks, availability of services and the guarantee of maximum quality. Telecommunications would then be, contrary to all expectations, a factor of geographical concentration on particular sites (technopoles, teleports, areas of advanced technology) whilst so much hope had been placed in them to facilitate geographic decentralization of all types of activities, notably tertiary ones;

in the case where a 'relocating' effect of telecommunications retains some credibility, hopes could turn in favor of Less Developed Countries (LDCs). The shift of activities on an international scale in the form of telework is taken very seriously and could become a cause for concern.

The introduction of telecommunications networks must be considered with a view to servicing infrastructure. In this context NICT appear as being a basic infrastructure - like water, electricity and transport - whereby a site can be serviced. Local officials must ensure development plans of telecommunications infrastructures are not a cause for shortages. Nevertheless, in industrialized countries, and France in particular, standard equipment permitting transmissions of 9600 bps is generally enough to satisfy the computer communication demands of most firms. If needs were to increase, it would still be possible to set up a satellite link. Such a solution could, in the case of developing countries, solve technical problems on a one-off basis, providing it were financially justifiable. It is thus on their work as developers that those responsible for regional development must concentrate, i.e. on the definition of priority sites and the implementation of all sorts of complementary measures. Believing that NCTs alone can solve a region's problems is naive. Nevertheless, measures and devices which take into account telecommunications networks increase the chances of success, even though they are by no means sufficient. The development of areas of advanced telecommunications is based on this logic; technopoles and teleports aim at offering firms and organizations the possibility of sharing networks and services with maximum capacity and reliability. The potential emergence of a new international division of labor has considerable consequences on global/local articulation, and therefore on the financial benefits which French or European regional communities could gain from the satisfactory development of the synergy which has today become possible between distant actors. If municipal and regional authorities must pay attention to telecommunications, it is also because the emergence of a new international division of work in which local firms will compete with those in other regions, countries or even continents, is foreseen. For Salone, the introduction of telecommunications radically changes the articulation of diverse variables impacting on location. This author suggests that the notion of connectivity is gaining importance, while that of proximity is weakening. He nevertheless remarks that 'techniques of connection ... reduce territorial friction due to distance, but do not in themselves guarantee the resolution of territorial inequalities' (Salone 1993). Needs and difficulties of medium-sized enterprises We can distinguish two types of firms. The strongest firms generally have the means and the will to equip themselves optimally in information technology and access to networks, including local access and Wide Area Networks, many times operating internationally. Less powerful firms, notably small and medium-sized enterprises, need to rely on the efforts of regional bodies to have access to shared services or networks. Telecommunication providers often provision insufficient service to small and medium-sized firms whose needs do not concern only 'products and networks' but also 'services'. Hence, certain regions (not only the peripheral ones) have made noteworthy efforts at providing communication development plans and creating teleports or other equipped sites - telecottages, centers of telework, and so forth._ Business areas are in no way equitably equipped to provide financially limited firms with solutions other than the private networks of the major firms._ This last point raises a problem that is also found in the processing of freight. Multimodal platforms are not always perfectly adapted to support the logistics of small and medium-sized firms. The example of transport is interesting. Because they are primarily private, small and medium-sized enterprises must resign themselves to using intermediary means to provide their own logistics, i.e. major shippers and other carriers. The services of telecommunication operators - both present and future - correspond to this level, as does the inclusion in certain communications networks of larger firms. The know-how of territorial agents and of organizations is different in respect of: information on the potential of a technology, organizational capacities,Ê and control of fragmented management of different sites. Consequently, firms, local and regional communities, development services and telecommunications operators are not equally capable of exploiting the new potentialities offered by technologies with respect to interaction between people and areas. An example can be found in the use of teleconferences during the Gulf War (early 1991). During that period the fear of terrorism led firms to reduce employee business trips. This in turn led to an increased use of teleconferences. At IBM, for example, the videoconference has developed vigorously since then._ In contrast, a survey conducted in Norway found very few people traveling for professional reasons were able to use telecommunications as a viable alternative during that same period (Erdal & Hallingby 1992). We suspect potential users in Norway were less informed as to technological possibilities than were IBM managers. These tendencies help strengthen economic domination. With EDI for example, development of telecommunications and information systems, permits the economic domination of large firms over small ones, of extra-regional firms over regional small and medium-sized enterprises that sub-contract, and so forth (Maugeri 1991). 'It seems to us ... that sub-contracting tends to remain hierarchical, with the control of a network as well as compulsory standards and protocols strengthening the conditions of dependence on the subcontract' (Verlaque 1994). We recall the views of Schiller on cultural domination brought about by the development of telecommunications. The preceding remarks thus imply a generalization of cultural, but also economic, domination. In logistic chains, all the partners do not possess the same capacities for processing information. As a result, the command of these technologies is today an increasingly relevant criterion of differentiation between firms._Thus, besides the private networks of large firms, the smallest firms also use the services set up by them. To that is added their use of transport and transport networks established by the State or regional authorities. It is at this level that the actions of regional authorities have their effect. There is limited evidence thus far of communication networks contribution 'to more flexible ways of organizing the production of goods and the delivery of services in the way that could benefit smaller enterprises and indigenous development in declining regions' (Goddard 1992). Amongst the efforts made by numerous regional communities, the most well-known are those relating to telework in rural areas, or those concerning the creation of teleports or technopoles. The idea of establishing telecommunications centers in peripheral regions or in rural areas is not new. It was first implemented in Sweden with telecottages (Qvortrup 1987, 1990). This concept can be compared to that of centers of rural telework, notably in France (e.g. tŽlŽsecrŽtariat). Teleservice centers have spawned numerous creations, notably in Scandinavia. They are formally called 'Community Teleservice Centers', but are known as telecottages in the specialized literature. In Sweden, the first telecottage was established in 1985 and by 1988 as many as 25 centers were operational in the four Scandinavian countries, with 4 in Finland and 3 in Denmark. About 20 additional centers were planned for the succeeding years. The system attracted interest outside Scandinavia and a telecottage system was planned even in Sri Lanka. In these centers telecommunications allow for new forms of economic activity in areas with low population density. They provide professional services such as facsimile, electronic mail and data communications. It was hoped by their promoters that the existence of these service centers in areas that were hitherto neglected or under-equipped would attract new economic activities. In the Scandinavian countries, ownership of such centers is shared by local authorities and private enterprise. They sometimes receive State subsidies. These examples show that, besides controversial-type considerations (e.g. centralization-decentralization; 'analytical illusions', prospective considerations), telecommunications can have very real territorial effects. The potential role of telecommunications on regions and local development is far from being non existent, for even if territorial effects do not depend solely on telecommunications, telecommunications is still a major facilitator. In many countries consolidation of Information Technologies (IT) infrastructures constitutes one of the priorities in regional planning:

Ireland (Grimes 1992);

the 'Singapore Intelligent City' (Corey 1991). 'Much of Singapore's planned development over the last past decades has sought to incorporate IT into its strategies' (Corey and Wilson 1996);

the 'Malaysian Multi-media Super Corridor' (Corey and Wilson 1996);

the 'scientific ring' of Catalonia, Spain (Segu( Pons 1996);

since 1993 in the United States, President Clinton has began to operationalize his policy on 'Information superhighway and National Information Infrastructure' (NII). The idea spread out around America. 'San Francisco Bay Area' (Smart Valley Inc.) as well as local communities have decided on their own to invest in the local IT infrastructure necessary to take full technological advantage of information-age applications (Lusk, Wyoming & Anaheim, California) (Corey and Wilson 1996).

Several French Regional Councils have undertaken 'concerted reflection on the development of electronic communication in their region' (Gassot & Mirales 1990). Regional Prefectures see in it an opportunity. In this respect the consolidation of communication infrastructures constitutes a policy priority. In the French Picardie Region, in order to set up a professional communication center in a technology park in the Oise valley, a feasibility study was ordered 'The stakes involved in communications, in their rapid implementation, are such that we can no longer conceive of a business area without including equipment of this kind. Such equipment is obviously a huge asset for promoting the technology park, as well as a useful tool for firms' (Rossignol & Damagnez 1990). New corporate forms The theme of the network concept of management has appeared in the writings of various authors examining new spaces in the enterprise (Bakis & Combès 1991, Rozenblatt 1992, Savy & Veltz eds. 1993, Chauchefoin 1994). In this line of research, writers argue communications networks are used primarily for intra-corporate transactions and provide a tool for improving control over organizational processes (Bakis 1980b & 1987, Roche 1992, Lorentzon 1995, Lorentzon & Sjoberg 1992, Lorentzon 1996, Magnusson 1996). These models of spatial organization of firms have evolved under the influence of new communication techniques (Bakis 1988, Paché 1988 & 1990, Bakis & Combès, 1991, Carroué 1991, Rowe & Veltz 1991, Paché & Paraponaris 1992, Rowe 1993). The organization of networked firms facilitate setting up of establishments connected to the decision-making centers by real-time links but with geographical dispersion (Carroué 1990, 1991, Lorentzon & Forsstrom 1991). The impact of EDI on inter-firm communication is a related research area. Although it was first seen as a problem of managing the flow of paper in firms, EDI now involves managing relations of production and exchange between numerous enterprises in different economic sectors on a global scale (Maugeri 1991). The realistic maximalists standpoint For others authors, a total territorial revolution is underway. This revolution is based on two phenomena: the disappearance of constraints of geographic distance, and the 'tunnel effect' (see below). Telecommunications are being used today to recombine the world in a new way which brings the 'physical and social aspects of cities into continuous interactions' (Graham & Marvin 1996). The idea of telecommunications as 'distant shrinking' makes it analogous to improvements in transportation. But, 'in so doing, the idea fails to capture the essential essence of advanced telecommunications' which is to render meaningless the "friction of distance"' (Gillespie & Williams 1988). All geographical models are based on the existence of friction imposed by distance! The 'denial of any such friction brings into question the very basis of geography that we take for granted' (Gillespie & Williams 1988). Today a geography of distances is combined with a geography of instantaneity, or at least of quasi-instantaneous accessibility. Geographic space is increasingly an area of flow, whereas it was for a long time understood as an area of place. The result is the:

spatial restructuring of organizations;

evolution in decision-making within organizations (Lorentzon & Forsstrom 1991);

a marked decrease in the relative importance of places (Castells 1989). 'The overall increase in global flows, notably of information and capital, constitutes a remaking of places and landscapes' (Lash & Urry 1994). A new logistic revolution Telecommunications are part of a basic movement towards the establishment of new organizational and spatial configurations of activity. It is not the first time in European history such effective restructuring has taken place. Four main 'logistic revolutions' have been identified during the last millennium (Andersson 1990). Each one has been characterized by the emergence, acceptance and adoption of fundamentally new infrastructures:

the Hanseatic period (13th century) was characterized by the integration of maritime and road transport, which enabled Northern Italy to be connected to the north-European ports;

the Golden Age (from the 16th century) was characterized by the improvement of naval construction and navigation techniques, which enabled Europe to be linked to the other continents after the great discoveries;

the industrial revolution was based on the use of new industrial and transport systems, which allowed for the creation of new markets.

Since 1970 the information revolution has been based on growing interaction made possible by the multiplication of communication channels and the acceleration of economic transactions.

At each stage of the 'logistic revolutions', the profound change in trade patterns was reflected in the functioning of long-distance relations. Trade was intensified and its geographic scope extended. During the information revolution, communication and knowledge has become easily accessible globally through the World Wide Web:

technological progress (miniaturization, increase in computing power and memory, convergence between audio-visual, computing and telecommunications technologies);

a political will asserted by States (launching of the Minitel in France, information super-highways in the US and Europe, new interest in telework in the context of regional development) and by the main operators (increased competitiveness, tariff wars and fights for customer loyalty by enhancement of service quality);

the growth of markets - equipping of firms, communication between mobiles, use of the Internet, diffusion of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) applications. New synergism produced by interconnected networks As the localization and organization of firms evolves, it raises the question of how the organization and development of regions is driven by changing technology. The steam engine was, in its time, able to lead to the evolution of localization in order to reduce the cost of fuel, while simultaneously permitting the concentration of production. The development of regional technical networks and, in particular, those related to the transport of information, also raises the question of territorial change. Synergism produced by interconnected networks organized on the basis of the complementarities of nodes is different from the functional organization in which centers are graded with multi-level hierarchy as in the Christaller and Lšsch model. To some, these trends mean the old territorial identity of the city economy as the heart of its hinterland has been totally lost. For Dematteis (1988), the city is 'divided into as many fragments as the networks which traverse it'. Decentralization of routine services and activities Territorial distribution of jobs is evolving with telework, tele-activity, teleservices, tele-control as well as relocation._ The same applies to certain cases of telework in rural areas, in small towns or even on the other side of the world. A startling sentence, the title of a document published in Canberra, Australia, on the development of telework, summarizes the implications of such work on lifestyles: 'When she goes to work, she stays at home' (Turner 1989). Has the combination of techniques for processing and transporting information, together with the existence of high-quality office equipment (e.g. facsimile, teletext) effectively promoted the beginning of a revolution in administrative and tertiary activities? The notion of home-based work is not always the one people dreamed of in the 1970s, e.g. the Parisian manager working from his country home or the return of women to their homes because of, or thanks to, telework. Rather it has meant the isolation and atomization of workers in their homes, and loss of control by managers because the physical presence of employees has been eliminated. There has naturally been a great deal of resistance to such practices. The subject aroused much enthusiasm, especially during the early 1980s, before being abandoned for some time. We note that interest in it has recently been revived._At least since the energy crisis in 1974 it has been argued that telecommunications can have a positive impact on the creation of jobs in the provinces and, more generally, a replacement effect with respect to transport. The new area of network enterprises,_ like remote services in low-density areas, should be granted considerable importance if we want to take into account the new potential for interaction in certain types of areas. The reality of remote services also bears witness to new forms of territorial interaction and the spatio-temporal fluidity of work. Even if the effects of relocation are secondary today, it would be inappropriate to ignore the reality of services provided over large distances, e.g. teleteaching, telemedicine, telemaintenance. In certain areas with sparse populations, one can easily imagine that such possibilities contribute to employment. This applies to Australia,_ Canada and northern Scandinavia,_ for example. It may also be relevant to certain types of expeditions which benefit from remote medical assistance (space missions, boat races). One particular case received extensive media coverage, that of a solitary navigator who performed a tongue operation with the help of instructions provided on a computer screen by a distant French doctor._The reality of remote services also applies to rural areas and small and medium-sized towns. In rural areas with sparse populations, the scaling down of medical equipment can be an additional cause for people leaving. But telecommunications can be helpful in such cases, for instance for diagnostic purposes. They can be used effectively, for example, to distinguish a mere intercostal pain from the beginning of a heart attack._ Networks can thus contribute towards maintaining population levels by stemming erosion of public services.Telecommunications are seen as a strategic tool in many fields of teleservices and teleactivities from medicine to industry (Bakis et al. eds. 1995). Different authors presents case studies: see, for the ABB business in Poland (Mastalertz & Epinette 1996). At all spatial scales, these trends in telecommunications are fueling decentralization of routine teleservices and teleactivities. It is true in regional corridors with the tunnel effect (see below), but also at the intercontinental level. Using telecommunication networks and adequate knowledge, on-line importing of labor and skills is easy from cheap 'telecolony' locations around the globe, a phenomena being called 'electronic immigration' (Pelton 1992). Tunnel effect between nodes and territorial corridors The tunnel effect is produced by telecommunication and transport infrastructures linking together remote nodes and city centers. These networks produce new synergisms and exclude much of the intervening space. An example can be found in the single global financial marketplace represented by New York, London and Tokyo which are in a time and space proximity 24 hours a day. The 'tunnel effect' is seen as an interesting tool for regional planning (Lavocat 1989). Regional examples of its application may already be found in numerous networked cities in Europe (Cambridge/London, Stockholm/Uppsalla, the Randstaad Holland) and in the Kansai Region of Japan. In today's global network economy, 'knowledge corridors link major knowledge intensive nodes or hubs to form Network cities' (Batten 1994). Clearly this 'tunnel effect' generated by information and communication technologies has the potential to radically change the face of national territories rather than simply reinforce the old order. Improvement of urban functioning In the twenty-first century, the urban theme will emerge as a fundamental area of research as ways are found for technologies serving urban areas to be put to optimum use. All technical networks will warrant particular attention. Urban engineering has been defined as the art of designing and managing urban technical networks. In this context on a functional and cognitive level, networks participate fully in urban development. The optimum functioning of regional and urban technical networks (Dupuy 1992) and of telecommunications networks makes it possible to travel and to make reservations in transport networks across all levels, from the local to the global._ The contribution of telecommunications to the improvement of exchange networks has an effect of enhancing regional management.It is not difficult to imagine how urban functioning could benefit from the better implementation of regional networks, and from the specific role of information flows in the service of technical systems. The flow of data is always of particular importance since it enables key functions. In the distribution of domestic water, for example, the processing of measurements concerning flow, pressure and quality, by various sensors throughout the network, would be impossible without instantaneous transmission by telecommunications. It is hardly realistic to imagine an alternative (an army of permanently available 'meter readers' whose measurements would be introduced, as fast as they could be taken, into the concrete management of the distribution network). Thus, information networks play a fundamental role in facilitating the functioning of transport services and of urban management - besides other services provided to citizens and based directly on telecommunications, such as remote monitoring, remote management or remote training. The metropolitanization of activities will be reinforced (hub effect). Optimum functioning of urban technical networks heightens the level of complexity to the point where any quality of life in giant conurbations becomes impossible. In this context we can understand the title of a recent paper: 'Cities, telematics and utilities: towards convergence' (Graham & Marvin 1994). Beyond technology, this type of effort implies using technical networks to enhance people's economic and social well-being, particularly in the poorest districts of metropolitan areas and rural areas currently undergoing profound change. On a larger scale, it is becoming possible to hope for a better understanding of the growing complexity of our world with its infinite interactions; a world that is becoming a particularly complex system, where small disturbances can have a chain reaction with repercussions of a far greater dimension. The control of networks seems essential for the control of today's world, so that urban life does not deteriorate via unintegrated urbanization in economically undeveloped countries and poor areas in developed countries. Amongst these networks, telecommunications is a highly strategic infrastructure - the supernetwork driving all territorial and urban networks including transport, water, and energy. The other side of the coin... The wish for greater local dynamism is inseparable from the risk of negative consequences. Will telecommunications facilitate the relocation of firms towards South-East Asia, Latin America or elsewhere, at the expense of the regions in which these firms are based?

Telework and relocation towards countries with low labor costsÊ It has become clear that an international market of brain power is currently being formed. This tendency can be seen as the amplification and diffusion on a global scale of relocation towards peripheral European regions and countries such as Ireland. In many European industrial firms (e.g. textiles, electronics) the relocation of jobs to Korea or Thailand has become proof of good management. High-quality electronic equipment which seemed the prerogative of European countries, North America and Japan, is now produced in South-East Asian countries such as Malaysia. Is this tendency going to become the rule in certain tertiary activities such as data input, telesecretariat, accounting or management of insurance policies? We see already many specific examples. For instance, the airline Swissair has transferred its accounting service to India. American and Australian firms are developing telework across their borders. Australian firms sub-contract data inputting to Singapore or the Philippines. Opinions on the consequences of such strategies vary greatly. It may seem that these are just individual cases. But they can also be interpreted as being precursors which will necessarily threaten employment in the Northern countries due to:

the existence of skilled labor in Southern countries such as the West Indies (Jamaica, Barbados etc.), Mexico, the Philippines, Korea, India, Singapore and China;

differences in the cost of labor. The globalization of this tertiary market can be explained by the average gross monthly salary._We can therefore sense that the impact in respect of employment is already significant and is going to become a very sensitive issue, including in the North! Although certain types of work cannot be relocated abroad, others can, and it will be more and more tempting to take advantage of the large differences in salaries. It is therefore becoming necessary for countries in the North to situate themselves in such a way as to be able to 'justify' differences in salaries. They will have to be able to carry out the more complex tasks which require special qualifications, such as industrial design work, otherwise market laws are likely to be applied more and more harshly. Some authors (Rozenholc-Bensaid 1991, Hepworth 1992) are afraid that rather than going to cheap national labor markets, routine office work may be increasingly transferred by satellite to Less Developed Countries (LDCs). In fact New York financial companies are already doing this. Back office centers are now booming in the LDCs and New Industrialized Countries (NICs). All that is needed is: the skills, the political stability and, of course, telecommunication and transport infrastructure. In Jamaica for instance the government has invested heavily for its 'digiport' which is booming for catalogue retailing, telemarketing, and reservation services (Wilson 1994). Many telephone hot lines for software support to western users are based in India now: in this country, software development industries are booming.

A strengthened centralizationÊ
Far from unilaterally favoring peripheral areas, telecommunications have other more subtle effects which naturally strengthen existing centralization or new forms of regional centralization such as teleports. The tendency therefore appears to be towards the spread of teleports and other technopoles and the intensification of centralization and metropolitanization. This buries all the utopian maximalists hopes and demonstrates quite the opposite to what they expect. We are headed not towards the spread of people and activities over vast areas, but towards a heightened concentration around a limited number of well-defined urban centers. Territorial inequalities are becoming more marked as the metropolitanization and polarization of activities increase. In no way can the technological neutrality of resources weaken the social logic of organizing the economic sphere hierarchically. The result is a stronger polarization as shown by the French case (42 percent of all new jobs created in France over the early 1990s were situated in and around Paris) and the British case: in the 1980s, information occupations and industries have grown dramatically in London and the South East. The growth of employment in the information intensive financial and business services sector reveals that London has gained 273,000 jobs in this industry in six years, 41 per cent increase. 'The sector now accounts for one quarter of London's jobs. While financial and business services have grown outside London, the position of the capital is still dominant with many of the provincial centers increasing their share of this sector at the expense of smaller centers within each region' (Goddard 1992). This evolution reflects the capital's role (international as well as national) and has been underpinned by the rapid diffusion of computer networks; these networks have their hubs in Paris and London, and the result is that the capitals reinforce their dominant position in the national and international urban system.

Understanding territorial interaction in the information age
The problematic of the regions/telecommunications relationship should be removed from the search for distinct effects (relocation for example) and focus on the emergence of an essential dynamic - the development of regions into networks. The use of telecommunications networks and of areas of tertiary activity in particular (viz. means of computing, concentration of activities, coordination of activities) results in a level of complementarity and interaction which did not exist a few decades ago, or even a few years ago. The same level of intensity and availability of infrastructure networks and of diffusion of services and applications was not available. This fact - in spite of it being so obvious - warrants closer attention. New efforts are required by geographers because of the challenge of invisibility: 'our observation of the way cities work is becoming increasingly more difficult. Cities are becoming invisible to us in certain important ways and it seems that this invisibility is increasing at a faster rate than our ability to adapt our research methods to these new circumstances' (Batty 1990). Networks of instantaneous communication will henceforth bridge the gap between various levels of geographic space. Situated between local and global levels, they allow for a novel form of articulation between the two, as they do between many other scalar levels (continents, States, regions, towns). Conclusion The perception of human interactions on a planetary scale has been modified considerably, opening new opportunities and potentialities for close economic cooperation between distant areas. Complementarity and interaction which did not exist a few years ago is thus accelerated. The question of the relationship between regions and telecommunications has become strategic. 'The old hierarchical order of national, regional and local governance and of sector and regional policy, has been irrevocably challenged. There are dangers of global integration proceeding hand in hand with regional and local disintegration, of islands of economic growth in the networked economy and economic decline off the networks' (Goddard 1992). Not acknowledging it would be blindness, at a time when mobile professional communication is developing and tariffs are being evened out in new terms driving the end of monopolies. The relationship between regions and telecommunications is a strategic issue for policymakers and planners:

for States, Regions and Municipalities, first, because it determines the way in which regional development is handled (adaptation of infrastructures to immediate and predicted needs; improvement of urban functioning), and because it makes it possible to avoid inequalities with respect to other competing territorial units (location, relocation of firms);

for firms and professional syndicates, secondly. Managers can no longer ignore the development of their networks in relation to that of organization charts, functions and international economic positioning. Information systems can themselves be the source of inertia in workflow management and the territorial evolution of the organization. One must therefore not jump to the conclusion that corporate information systems inevitably generate a dispersion of activities which defy space. That is why, in the framework of the design of these information systems, space should be taken into account as an important decisional variable;

for network operators engaged in provisioning various types of urban and regional networks.

Between 'geospace' (i.e. contiguous territories) and 'cyberspace' new relations are appearing
Geospace and cyberspace seem involved in an emerging process of fusion, a growing combination of both. As a result, it could be interesting to call this new geographic reality 'geocyberspace'. This term will stress the new consequences for geographical space of the new services permitted on global networks and infrastructure. Multiple factors give different values to diverse areas of geographic space. In this context, the flow of information, the availability of equipment and the access to infrastructures and networks all influence the outcome. Qualitative differences (reliability, maintenance) in equipment, services and networks also play a part. Communications, far from eliminating space, tend to compound the differentiation between its various points and areas. Using the prefix 'geo' before 'cyberspace' will stress the remaining persistence of contiguous territories and will help the researcher avoid surrender to completely utopians views. Abler and Bakis, among others, have posed this question to geographers (Abler 1974, Abler 1975, Bakis 1980a, 1980b, 1982) but no effort has yet been made to give this topic the attention it warrants at least since the increasing convergence of telecommunication and informatics; this applies to research in all countries, even though interest in the subject has been revived in the late 1980s._ That is still the case today, despite a number of attempts._ The specific research field presented in this chapter (telecommunication networks and territories) does not yet have a critical mass of staff and resources. It is now necessary to make larger efforts on focused research in this field in order to examine the implications for territories of the greater use of new telecommunication networks. This slowness in becoming aware of the key issues and carrying out new systematic research can be attributed to the following factors:

the lack of understanding by government planners of the spatial dynamics of telecommunications;

the fact that university research cannot enlighten planners since a great deal of pioneering work still must be done on the subject. Geographers and researchers have hitherto devoted very little attention to regional development;_the persistence of the traditional paradigm whereby the approach to regional development remains, to a large extent, based on the logic of industrial development. Consequently, the potential of regional development induced by other factors has had great difficulty in emerging and in asserting itself as a subject worthy of interest. Such interest is finally appearing, including in economic circles, thanks notably to the growth of teleports. Local officials are thus able to envisage new possibilities for regional development, with realistic expectations;

the reluctance of mainstream economists to take Information and Communication Technologies (ITC) into account;

the fact that the impact of telecommunications on all aspects of corporate life is difficult to evaluate: firms rarely have a clear picture of the current and potential use of telecommunications and notably of their territorial implications; existing data is generally territorially or otherwise inappropriate; the dominant approach of the NICTs is technological, which makes it difficult to clearly identify uses, motivations, innovative processes and the territorial context;

the fact that the social impact of telecommunications is a research field that has been reserved mainly for researchers from the communication sciences. These researchers, trained mainly in sociology and economics, have directed their interest mostly at the mass-media, journalism and the cinema. Although they have recently shown interest in telecommunications, their institutional affiliations as well as their training and their teaching programs leave no room for telecommunications other than in the framework of their cultural and political preoccupation.

It appears clearly that more factual analyses are needed on this embryonic field and that it is time to make larger efforts building on research programs in close relation with the network paradigm (Hughes 1983, Dupuy 1991, Benko & Lipietz 1992, Bakis 1993, Parrochia 1993) and the Large Technical System (Mayntz & Hughes eds. 1988, La Porte 1991, Summerton 1994) or macro technical network paradigms (Rochlin 1995, 1996) now emerging in social sciences and humanities._We also need to develop research in the applied social sciences (notably in geography and sociology) so as to contribute to the development of new scenarios. It seems necessary to make evaluations which provide more than just technical information, particularly during pilot operations initiated by development services and telecommunications operators. The optimum conditions for the development of teleactivities should be prepared. The risk is disintegration in policies, owing to the liberalization of competition and the weakening of the State's role in public service. If care is not taken, the quality of infrastructures and services in certain areas could regress:

In developing countries: disparities between regions could well be amplified by the functioning of regions organized 'into networks' (not contiguous). The temptation will then be strong to neglect the interstitial regions which have little economic relevance, and to take an interest only in the strongest elements of the region, country, continent or world (the corridors with tunnel effect). That would be the downfall of a universal service notion in provisioning telecommunications. If the notion of public service is not taken into account in one way or another by telecommunications operators, it will be necessary to invent a new form for it so that services - equipment and infrastructure networks - are made accessible across disparate territories. Should some networks be excluded from the obligation to provide a public service adopted by certain historical operators who formerly benefited from monopolistic positions? To what extent should the notion of a public service be reintroduced by extending the equalization of areas, from the traditional operator to all the telecommunications operators spawned by deregulation? Can we settle for access to networks by a certain percentage of the population only? Even if 90 per cent of the population of a country is served, that will never be 100 per cent of the territory, or even 90 per cent! Can we assert that radio-communications have to aim for a targeted network only, situated around a certain percentage of the population? Is that not perpetuating regional inequalities by strengthening them further? This type of attitude is not reprehensible a priori (governing is 'choosing', and a service has a price), but the political choice underlying it must be clearly defined; it amounts to a concentration of efforts on only a part of the territory. That could be a matter for parliamentary debate and an opportunity for States to assume their responsibilities. Increased dialogue between regional development services and the main telecommunications operators certainly seems desirable. It would help to ensure that current developments do not work against the equal treatment of different parts of the countries;

Between countries: on a world scale, a distinction may be drawn between on-line and off-line territories:Ê the danger here 'is that the new global order will be marked by a new segmentation of on-line and off-line territories' (Robins & Gillespie 1992). The issue thrown up by these global changes are ethical rather than technical.

With the development of Internet and of the increasing use of other communication networks, a slight change has nevertheless become perceptible recently. It seems that the spatial dimension of the communication network is finally being seen for what it is: a strategic field which owes its origin to the rise of territorial management, particularly of towns; contribution to a better distribution of activities; corporate management; and the financial interests of network operators.

Notes

The reader is referred to two bibliographies drawn up ten years apart: (Bakis 1982 & 1992). Since 1987 results are available from research conducted within the Commissions of the International Geographical Union (IGU) published in NETCOM (Bakis 1996b).2ÊÊ Infrastructures (physical networks), facilities and the distribution of services all coincide in areas that are already favored - as the convergence of various indicators of economic and social development shows. In the field of telecommunications; the accentuation of territorial differences of all kinds also leads to certain areas being over-equipped while others remain notoriously under-equipped. Even before transforming the organization of space, communication technologies can not be separated from their highly heterogeneous context: population density, unequal distribution of industrial and tertiary activities between zones, towns, regions, countries and continents. The territorial disparities seen in economic and social measures constitute an unavoidable fact, an outcome of the territorial organization of human society. In addition, except basic telephone service in industrialized countries, new communication networks (Internet, cellular radio technologies) also are growing in this very heterogeneous spatial context.

3 Gillepsie, 'Telecommunications and the development of Europe's less-favored regions', Geoforum, 18, pp.229-236, cf. p.230; Salomon Ilan and Razin, E. (1988) 'Geographical variations in telecommunications systems: the case of Israel's telephone system', in Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 79, 122-134, cf. p.123; Abler Ronald F. (1991) 'Hardware, software, and brainware: mapping and understanding telecommunications technologies', in Brunn S.D., Leinbach T.R. (ed.), pp.31-48, see p.44; Kellerman, op.cit. 1993, p.117.

4 MD of Microsoft together with the MD of MacCaw Cellular Communications, the world's leading mobile communications operator.

Moeglin, P., Brulois, V. and CarrŽ, D. (1994), 'Le communateur personnel universel, entre utopie et territoire', Colloque GŽographies, Information et Communication, UniversitŽ de Toulouse Le Mirail: Toulouse.

Gille L. (1993) 'Les perspectives des PCS aux Etats-Unis', Communication and strategie, No. 10, pp.143-147._ÊÊ On the concept of territory, see our introduction to Communications et territoires (Bakis H. ed. 1990)._ÊÊ See for example: Nilles J.M. et al. (1976); NASA (pp.727, 728, 732 in Bakis doctoral thesis, 1983); Bakis (1985); Salomon (1986).

See the study on the localization of firms in and around (Begag, A. et al. 1990, 1991)._ÊÊ A. Rozenholc Bensaid (dir.), op.cit. 1991._ÊÊ in NETCOM, 1993, p.4._Ê M. Bonetti, NETCOM, 4-2, Juin 1990, p.355 on the process of concentrating available information on a given site (teleports)._Ê cf. Y. Gassot et P. Mirall�s, 'Le temps des projets: vers des politiques rŽgionales de la communication Žlectronique', in Bakis dir. 1990, pp. 221 and onwards._Ê PachŽ, G., (1990) 'L'organization spatiale de la firme: modes de transaction et technologie de l'information', NETCOM, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp.174-187; By the same author, 'La prise en compte des techniques de tŽlŽcommunications dans l'analyse des rŽseaux logistiques: rŽflexions mŽthodologiques', in Bakis (ed.) 1988, pp.93-102; 'L'entreprise ŽclatŽe, reprŽsentation Žconomique de l'espace productif', in Bakis ed., Communications et territoires, 1990, pp.83-92; 'Les PME dans la dynamique des firmes rŽseaux: aspects conceptuels', in NETCOM, 5-2, 1991, pp.479-497. Also, in the Que sais-je series, a volume on network enterprises.

Paper given at the 'DATAR/IRIS Seminar', UniversitŽ Dauphine; Paris, 17 December 1992._Ê G. PachŽ, 'L'organization spatiale de la firme: modes de transaction et technologie de l'information', NETCOM, Vol. 4, No. 1, Avril 1990, pp. 174-187._Ê Of jobs or only of activities when jobs are not created but the delocalization corresponds to an increase in the volume of work on a distant site._Ê A. Rozenholc Bensaid (dir.) 'Le tŽlŽtravail ou les marchŽs de la mati�re grise', La Lettre de la DATAR, DŽcembre 1991, No. 135, p. 8.

See G. Paché & C. Paraponaris, 'L'entreprise en réseau', PUF, Que sais-je? No. 2704, Paris, 1992; V. Di Martino & L. Wirth (1990) op.cit. et V. Di Martino & L. Wirth (1990b) Conditions of Work Digest: Telework, Bureau International du Travail, Gen�ve, 1990._Ê The problem is acute in the Australian case: 'Sparse rural populations, the problems of maintaining services, and the difficulties of social life in rural areas have been themes of major relevance in Australia' remarks G. T. McDonald 'Rural Geography' in Australian Geographical Studies, 26, 83-104, April 1988. In his work J. H. Holmes analysed models of contact and communication. For example, 'Providing telecommunications service to rural and remote regions: the Australian experience', Seminar Information and Telecommunications Technology for Regional Development, organized jointly by the Government of Greece and the OECD, Athens, 7-9 December 1987, p. 13, as well as 'The domestic satellites and remote area communications', Australian Geographical Studies, 22 (1984) pp.122-128.

D. Gammon (1991) Telemedicine in North Norway, Teledirektoratets forskningsavdeling, report TFR 27/91, p. 45._Ê In January 1993 in the VendŽe Globe yacht race._Ê Case quoted by Mr. Duport, Datar, OTV, Rencontres 91, op.cit. 1991._Ê See the author's studies on air and rail transport: H. Bakis, 'Les rŽseaux privŽs de tŽlŽcommunications: l'exemple de la rŽservation aérienne', NETCOM, 3-1, Mai 1989 , pp. 203-237; H. Bakis, 'Les télécommunications au service du chemin de fer en France, ou l'autre réseau de la SNCF', NETCOM, 5-2, Juillet 1991, pp. 434-468.

A publication by the DATAR gives a comparison of the average monthly salary for the same type of job in computing in various countries: France (8300FF), Singapore (3600FF), Korea (2970FF), Hong Kong (2970FF), Taiwan (2340FF), Malasia (940FF), Philippines (720FF), India (720FF)._Ê With respect to the United States, Ronald Abler was able to ask in 1987: 'Where are American geographers?' (Abler 1987). In Canada an official document dated 1987 stated that 'telecommunications and information technologies are of primary importance for the development of each and every region in Canada, and for the reduction of regional disparities'. Yet, five years later no structured research program had been created and no research funds existed. 'Les communications au XXIe si�cle', p.79, Minist�re des approvisionnements et services, Ottawa, 1987; quoted by A. Laramée, 1993.

Mainly by a few teams at international level lead by: - Bakis & Verlaque - French Group (since 1981) and International Geographical Union Study Group (since 1984) then Commission (since 1988); - Brotchie et al. (eds 1985, 1987, 1991); - Estabrooks & Lamarche (1987); - Newcastle University, U.K. (Hepworth 1989; Goddard 1992; Graham & Marvin 1996); - Brunn and Leinbach (1991); - Corey & Wilson since 1994 (Symposium 'Telecom tectonics', MSU, East Lansing, 1994); - Regional Scientists (Nijkamp & Capello 1996). ÊÊÊ In this context, several universities in the US, France, Sweden, Israel, Germany and other countries have started courses on telecommunications, geography, or regional studies.

That was the situation which prevailed in developed countries, at least until the mid-eighties: France, USA, etc. It is still true in a large number of countries, e.g. Canada (LaramŽe, 1993)._Ê See also other examples in sociology (Degenne and Forsé 1994), philosophy (Serre 1993), geography (Rozenblatt 1992), economy (Chauchefoin 1994).

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