At BT we believe that we are on the verge of a new age of communication. In this new age, it will be possible for every conversation to take place face-to-face; teachers and carers will be able to share their knowledge with whoever needs it; the wonders of the world will be accessible to everyone, everywhere.

Our investment in research and development (R&D) - around two per cent of turnover (£291 million for the year 1996/97) - enables us to develop new technologies and bring them to market, in the form of products and services, faster than our competitors.

Electronic commerce, for example, has the potential to revolutionise the way businesses market and sell products. BT is developing a portfolio of services - including on-line payment, electronic watermarking and copyright protection - that will make this way of doing business in cyberspace both easy and secure.

We are also developing a range of healthcare products that will link patient and carer regardless of where they happen to be. These products include advanced visualisation technologies for training medical students; remote foetal scanning, which enables women to seek obstetric advice from hundreds of miles away; and a system that enables paramedics at the scene of an accident to send images back to the emergency medical team based at the hospital.