Where Electronic Messages Have The Edge

45 EE April 1987 WHERE ELECTRONIC MESSAGES HAVE THE EDGE The new age of infor- mation technology is founded on one simple truth. It is quicker, easier, and cheaper to send pulses of electricity down a telephone wire or over a satellite link than it is to transport people or pack- ages by road, sea or air. The telex service has until now been the standard means of sending text. Telex is a reliable war horse but has its own snags. The equipment is bulky and expensive, trained operators are needed to send mess- ages, and the service relies on dedicated lines - that is to say special circuits designed to carry telex pulses rather than speech. It is still not widely recognized that almost every personal computer, either desk top or port- able, can be used for electronic mail through one of the available ser- vices. It is the modern alternative to sending cor- respondence by telex. Text is sent from one computer to another along a con- ventional telephone line via a central message- h...