LESS than two years ago, John Sculley, then chairman and chief executive of Apple Computers, provoked private jokes at his own expense at a telecommunications conference in Paris.
The cause of the mirth was Mr Sculley's speech to conference participants in which he predicted a convergence of telecommunications, computing, electronic, media, entertainment and education corporations to create a mega-industry that would be worth US$3.5 trillion by the year 2000.
No one is laughing now.
US corporations, which see themselves as future information superhighway players, are rushing to piece together the critical information and service network that will stretch from suppliers to consumers.
Many US regional telephone companies feel threatened by telecoms advances, as the same wires used by cable television or data companies can also be used to transmit conversations.
Robert Harris, managing director at Goldman Sachs in London, believes the fear of being left out in the cold has driven US regional telephone companies to merge or acquire cable-TV firms.