WHEN WIRE WAS KING: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COMMUNICATIONS puts the telecommunications revolution into historical context. Our everyday existence is nearly completely dependent on secure and reliable telecommunications, and as our digital ecosystem grows increasingly complex, it's critically important to understand what drives, threatens, and governs the technology we greatly depend on. Explore three interconnected themes - innovation, competition, and regulation - and the shifting balance among them that sparked the telecommunications revolution beginning in the early 1970s. The liberalization of regulations and opening of the telecommunications market covering satellite, cable, wireless, and telephony led to an explosion of innovation that brought us the Internet and wireless. Today, our reliance on these methods for commerce, technology, entertainment, travel, health, and all societal interaction are so complete that if the plug were pulled, our nation and the world would likely collapse. WHEN WIRE WAS KING: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COMMUNICATIONS is a visual journey through our telecommunications history, using archival photos, footage, newscasts, advertising, and entertainment clips to transport viewers. The film captures the story of this revolution through the voices of key players - innovators, economists, policy makers, industry executives, and Congressional leaders - and how their actions can inform us as we confront the global communications technologies and challenges of today.