Information and Communications Technology or (ICT), is often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT), but is a more specific term that stresses the role of unified communications^[1] and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.^[2]
The phrase ICT had been used by academic researchers since the 1980s,^[3] but it became popular after it was used in a report to the UK government by Dennis Stevenson in 1997^[4] and in the revised National Curriculum for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2000.
The term ICT is now also used to refer to the convergence of audio-visual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large economic incentives (huge cost savings due to elimination of the telephone network) to merge the audio-visual, building management and telephone network with the computer network system using a single unified system of cabling, signal distribution and management.
The term Infocommunications is used in some cases as a shorter form of information and communication(s) technology. In fact Infocommunications is the expansion of telecommunications with information processing and content handling functions on a common digital technology base. For a comparison of these and other terms, see.^[5][6]