Metals demand in telecommunications.

The consumption of major metals by Western economies appears to have begun a decline in the mid 1970s which has gone largely unnoticed or explained. Although this period is close to a period of recession, initial analysis of the decline indicated that it could not be explained by general economic factors alone. We have examined data from various sources on the usage of metals in telecommunications and, in general, find a similar declining trend in metal usage but the timing of the decline varies with different metals and does not, in general, coincide with the noted general decline. In addition to economic factors, we propose several technological factors which we believe contribute to this trend. These factors can be grouped into two broad categories: evolutionary and revolutionary.