Changing Technology Is Bringing On A Wild ‘Wired World’ Telect Boss Sees Major Societal Changes As E-Commerce Grows
Paul Allen, a billionaire investor and co-founder of Microsoft Corp., has a futuristic vision known as the “wired world.”
That notion is shared by Wayne Williams, president and CEO of Telect Inc., a Liberty Lake-based maker of telecommunications equipment and one of the area’s largest private employers.
Addressing the Dean’s Forum Thursday at Gonzaga University’s Jepson Center, Williams discussed how technology trends are shaping business and society.
“The Internet is seriously changing your life,” Williams told the auditorium crowd.
He added that electronic commerce, or e-commerce, will have a growing impact on how businesses market products and interact with customers.
Williams said that within five years mobile phones will be the communication device of choice, enabling users to have one phone number for personal and business use for their entire lives.
The Internet will always be on at home, making use of fiber-optic networks and other high-bandwidth lines, said Williams. And people will use the Internet for more routine chores, like making phone calls, once the technology is standardized.
Williams said more manufacturers will develop direct relationships with customers, slowly cutting out distributors, and fanning e-commerce in the process.
Williams also believes competitive local exchange carriers - phone companies that resell service for Bell operators, such as U S West - will control 25 percent of the phone market by 2003. That will give consumers more choices, he said.
All of the changes will not come without casualties, Williams said.
Retail stores may lose some sales as they adapt to and compete with the Internet and electronic commerce. Telephone systems will shift to the Internet, Williams said, and no longer be based on typical-dial tone.
He added that print and broadcast media will be different in the future as consumers continue to customize what they read and watch.
As a company that furnishes products to most of the business sectors Williams described, Telect has seen considerable growth.
Last year, Telect posted revenues of $121 million. For 1999, Williams said a conservative revenue estimate is $148 million.