Uncertainty and inertia

The challenge, and justification, of long-term telecommunications planning lies in an acute conflict between uncertainty and inertia. A national telecommunications system faces great economic, social, and political uncertainties, yet it does so handicapped by a degree of inertia which precludes rapid changes of direction. Assessing first the sources of uncertainty and inertia, the author goes on to examine ways in which the two can be reduced or reconciled.