There are many terms used to describe cyberspace, including virtual space, virtual environments, virtual reality, alternative realities, augmented reality, open spaces, etc. At the moment most of these reside on specialised machines. However, it can be anticipated that before very long large public servers could offer people cyberspace facilities in which people interact through avatars, etc. Such public spaces are already being developed and experimented with by US companies. A sub-set is the development of virtual cities as representations of physical cities and towns. Linking the virtual with the real (augmented reality) provides new opportunities for communication systems and services like Global Positioning System (GPS). It is possible that such virtual spaces may offer a future alternative to broadcast television, particularly as interactivity increases. There may be many more applications, such as sophisticated games, specific retrieval multimedia services with immersion capabilities, navigation possibilities, remote diagnoses (e.g. augmented reality applications), data mining, etc.) The interface to end-users is of key importance for commercial usage. Over a period of time, and in particular as we are moving towards more visual interfaces, these user interfaces will take up features of Cyberspace.

Cyberspace itself will have structure, sets of properties which may be very different from the real, material world as well an the human mental world. This new space may emerge from new types of inventions, which may be tools, procedures, etc. An example is the interaction between agents, which may exist in a space with specific properties. We expect human and machine behaviour to play a bigger role as activities in cyberspace becomes more pervasive. Various ethical issues will become important and must be addressed.

Objectives

The main objectives of this Study are to:

• Clarify the concepts of cyberspace and their relevance to TelCos and other stakeholders.
  
• Describe likely uses and purposes of cyberspace.
  
• Identify relevant applications, network and end system requirements
• Analyse resulting business, market and social issues
• Recommend actions for TelCos and other stakeholders