Physical Distance and Language as Determinants of the International Telecommunications Network

Abstract

The language of the inhabitants of an individual country and its physical location may be viewed as antecedent conditions which predict a nation's position in the international telecommunications network. Survey data published in The World's Telephones are used to describe this network during the 1980s. The results of a network analysis suggest that the world's communication network may be described as a "star" with a "hub" and three "spokes," one for Latin America, one for Europe and a third for Asia and the Middle East. Language occupied an important position on each spoke, Spanish in Latin America, German in Europe and English in Asia. They further suggest that language has a major impact on international telecommunications accounting for nearly 28 percent of the network's structure; physical location explained over 17 percent of the structure. Together, these two factors accounted for 36.2 percent of the variance in the network's structure.