http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1924572,00.html This sounds so well known: The Sultan stopped the telephone in his capital before WW I. In East Germany you got a telephone only if the State and the Party deemed you worthy of a private line. In East Germany again, after the construction of the Berlin Wall the state youth organisation, FDJ, climbed on the roofs and oriented TV antennas so that they would not get "imperialist" TV stations. But: Twenty (?) years later, Western TV stations were so widely listened to that the state decided to feed them into local East German TV cable nets. So, there is some hope that history might repeat itself. This shows the interest of historical studies of communication systems, I'd say - Frank -- .......................................... Dr. Frank Thomas FTR Internet Research 93110 Rosny-sous-Bois France