FUTURE TRAINING CONTINUES 

You must have noticed the recent training programs we are going through albeit unconsciously. Postal codes in alpha-numeric symbols, for example. Longer phone numbers are coming soon.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation (NTT), the world's largest corporation (twice the size of IBM, General Motors and AT & T combined), recently announced that by January 1991, all phones in greater Tokyo (which includes 26 cities, six towns and nine villages) will have four-digit exchange numbers, one more than the present three here in Canada.

If you think Tokyo has made another first, you're wrong. That claim to fame has already gone to Paris. This is the first such change of exchange numbers in 31 years in Tokyo. In 1960 they changed from two digits to three.

As the communications age blossomed in Japan, with the explosion in the increased use of facsimile (some Japanese offices actually fax mail across the same office floor -- almost all fax upstairs or downstairs) and microcomputer communications as well as normal voice telephone lines, something had to give in this cutting-edge metropolis. Four-digit exchange numbers was obviously the way to go. An earlier crunch indicated the coming trend: pagers went four-digit in February, 1987. In 1988 new telephone subscribers in areas suffering from a shortage of phone exchanges were assigned four-digit phones. The new step is a continuation of the trend. For example: present phone number 03 (Tokyo) /123-4567 converts to 03-3123-4567 on January 1, 1991, but only in Tokyo. Expect such changes here eventually.

And the complexities continue. NTT expects a shortage of fourdigit exchange numbers by early 1991 in rapidly-growing (in telephone demand) areas. They are already working on that. Note how the Japanese anticipate problems well ahead of actual crisis. In North America crisis is often only recognized when confirmed by disaster. Japan knows that progress in an advanced information society requires superior communications facilities as the standard.

You are used to changing the clock twice a year ... going into daylight saving time in winter and the reverse in the springtime. Next: An outer space time zone so earth stations will have something concrete to relate to. Get ready also to see phone numbers (or cable numbers) grow here as coming decades introduce more and more communications equipment.

The Japanese recently announced that the hook-up of 17 new cities to their fibre-optic network. One listed was Chicago, U.S.A. Don't be surprised if a Japanese company offers to rewire your city with fibre-optics providing they can compete with the presently established cable company. They will offer such enticements as guaranteeing not to raise cable rates for five years, a selection of more than 100 channels for the same price now paid for 40, and another 100 channels for business use for additional fees.

The speed with which telecommunications are developing on a world scale allows multi-national companies to make offers unavailable from smaller national companies. If, due to political pressure or nationalistic feelings, some countries refuse to let such advancements take place, the restrictions will place these countries in a secondary position for obtaining the necessary information to put other domestic corporations on an equal basis - similar to technopolies already entrenched. The videocassette recorder may soon classify as a necessity, not a luxury. They are almost all Japanese. The fax machine is sweeping the world and is allowing business to communicate more rapidly than ever before. Many small businesses say they simply can't operate without one. The fax machines are all Japanese.

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