Integration or interconnection is a strong trend in computer data, both between users of a given system or between systems. This paper presents some of the advancements in communications media and newer standardized methods of telecommunications transmission, to provide an overview of communications technology appropriate for drinking water utilities. Media is the physical connection between locations--phone lines, radios, and so forth. Radio media include low/medium band voice, high band, cellular phone/trunk radio, microwave, and satellite systems. Copper wiring, the predominate media in use for telecommunications, may be thin wire or thick wire; thick wire is used for local area networks, while thin wire may be used for telephone lines or cable television. Fiber optics, the third media for telecommunications, is best for new construction; it is not susceptible to electromagnetic interference. Methods of interconnecting computer data involve networks, such as local area, wide area, or metropolitan area networks. Local area networks are used within a building or site; wide area networks use telephone lines to interconnect over a larger geographic area, and metropolitan area networks are a trend for the future. To facilitate interconnection, standards are required. Three types of standards are briefly described in this paper: OSI, ISDN, and SONET.