The integration of voice and data communication

Communication has been one of the key ingredients in the success of the United States of America (USA) as both a nation-state and a society. It is clear how important the telegraph and the telephone were to the country in moving information (and the railroads in moving goods) from place-to-place quickly. It is more difficult to understand why this occurred in the USA to a much greater extent than in Europe. The Europeans began with a superior infrastructure for industrial society, a much better financial position and greater resources. While there is no single answer to this puzzle, one of the key ingredients was the use in the USA of a single language (American-English).