Radio astronomy was born in the 1930s and matured in the 1950s. The telecommunications environment of those decades was dominated by monopolies (often state monopolies) and a strong regulatory environment. Radio communications were analogue in nature and mostly confined to frequencies below a few hundred megahertz. The worldwide telecommunications environment began to change in the 1960s and has undergone a revolution during the last three decades. Impulse for this revolution, which has not yet ended, was provided by political, as well as by technological developments. The most influential among these were the end of the cold war and the emergence of giant, often multinational telecommunications companies or consortia, that provide services previously reserved to state monopolies. Technically, the new era can be characterized by a host of new types of satellite services, the use of digital communication techniques, the proliferation of low power devices that do not require individual licensing and by a steady move towards higher frequencies. I discuss the evolution of some of these trends and their implications for radio astronomy.