Information and communications technology (
ICT) is often used as an extended synonym for
information technology (IT). It is a more extensive term (i.e. more broad in scope) that stresses the role of
unified communications 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. The term
ICT is 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 telephone network with the computer network system using a single unified system of cabling, signal distribution and management.