Communications technology continues to transform how we do business

Cash may be king, but communications can make or break a business. From mom and pop shops, to online retailers and billion-dollar conglomerates, communications technology continues to transform how we do business.

Just four years after the invention of the telephone in 1876, there were nearly 48,000 phones in use in the United States. Telefax, which predates the phone by nearly 20 years, didn't catch on until the 1970s, but today many businesses seal deals with faxed documents. Businesses around the world send billions of e-mails daily, and a Web page is virtually a requirement of doing business these days.