ting Trading, hiring/supply Health Management Education Training Elder care Justice systems Environmental effects Passenger transport infrastructure Pollution Materials transport infrastructure Global warming Vehicles Construction - built environment INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 - © OECD 2006 2. TELECOMS INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030 Electronic mobility impacts on distributions of habitat and workplace Offshoring - telecommunications facilitates substitution of labour at lower cost The location of work is determined largely by the availability of a pool of workers with the necessary skills. Similarly, workers need to live in areas close enough to where they work. These two factors define today's location of residence and of employment in services and manufacturing industry, with commuters travelling from suburbs to urban centre or from suburb to suburb. However, telecommunications allows companies greater freedom to locate tasks in different countries, such that they can take advantage of skilled workers either in areas of the country with untapped pools of labour or abroad. Offshoring, or the international sourcing of IT and ICT-enabled business support services, is a recent development in the globalisation of services sectors. Offshoring, enabled by telecommunications, is a response to the need to cut costs or fill skills shortages, against a background of global competition. When one firm moves to lower-cost locations, competitors are forced to follow. Developments in ICTs increasingly facilitate global sourcing, particularly "knowledge work". This includes data entry and information processing services, research and consultancy services carried out via the Internet and e-mail, as well as tele- and videoconferencing. In the past few years activities such as call centres have increasingly been offshored. In a sense this is not substitution but rather displacement - thus in exporting jobs, effectively infrastructure needs are exported as well - offices, hou