The answer seems to be changing daily, just because of the explosive growth of the Internet. The consensus seems to be that the following developments will help support telecommuting and distance work in various ways:

Web-based conferencing (documents, video, audio) allows dispersed teams to share information and work together. Most of the technical tools available today are still a bit rough around the edges, but they will improve.

Sun Microsystems' Java language will make it possible for remote workers to access a variety of applications no matter what PC platform they're using. Java is catching on quickly, so watch for Web site and intranet applications.

The telecommunications bottleneck is still the biggest problem that most remote workers experience. The more stuff there is on the Web, and the more people there are trying to access it, the slower the access time and the greater the frustration. The debate about the relative pros and cons of advanced telecommunications "pipelines" such as ISDN, ADSL, and cable modems (among others) continues and grows. Whichever one, or ones of these options or others becomes more popular, it's clear that something has to happen so most of us can get beyond the 14.4 or 28.8 kbps that we rely on.