The use of telecommunications technologies has been encouraged to improve quality and reduce costs of human services delivery; however, the adoption rate has been disappointing. This paper reviews the model found most useful for the analysis of barriers to the adoption of telecommunications technologies. Characteristics which have been found to be related to the degree of innovation adoption are: (1) status of knowledge and engineering; (2) value attributes; (3) trialability; (4) complexity; (5) communicability; (6) regulation; and (7) autonomy of operation. Relevance, compatability, and relative advantage are examined as characteristics of application which influence the innovation process. Results show that: (1) radio and telephone have the least number of barriers; (2) there are many barriers to cable television use, including technical and distribution problems; (3) time, cost and need to aggregate demand limit autonomy of operations; and (4) regulation and the complexity of telecommunications technologies are barriers to adoption. Trends which may lead to breaking these barriers are indicated. A bibliography is attached. KP)