Concept:
- Trade across long distances always faced three obstacles, distance, time and cost. Globalisation grew as technology removed each of them.
- Information and communication technology attacked all three at once.
Step 1: It removed the barrier of distance.
Telegraph, telephone, mobile phones and fax, supported by satellite communication devices, allow people to contact one another anywhere in the world and even from remote areas.
A company no longer has to be near its customer or its supplier to deal with them.
Step 2: It removed the barrier of time.
Electronic mail and voice mail reach the other end of the world almost instantly, and the internet gives access to information on almost anything within seconds.
Decisions that once needed weeks of letters can now be taken the same day.
Step 3: It removed the barrier of cost.
Messages and data can be sent across the world at negligible cost. Once communication became this cheap, it became worthwhile to divide a single job between two countries.
Step 4: Show the result through an example.
A news magazine meant for readers in London is designed and its text and photographs prepared in Delhi, sent to London over the internet, and printed there. Design work is cheaper in India, so the publisher gains and the reader is unaffected.
The same logic brought call centres, accounting work and engineering design to India.
Step 5: Connect it back to globalisation.
Once distance, time and cost stopped standing in the way, production itself could be spread across many countries, with each stage carried out wherever it is cheapest. That spreading of production is precisely what globalisation means.
Final Answer: By making communication instant, worldwide and almost free, information and communication technology removed the barriers of distance, time and cost, which allowed companies to divide their work across countries and turned separate economies into one connected global economy.