This paper presents a review of work performed in the field of communication systems requirements for wide area monitoring and control applications. This includes studies performed both in the context of NASPI, the North American Syncrophasor Initiative, as well as other studies in the US and Europe. Presently a relatively large body of work has been done regarding the requirements on the communication infrastructure. Among the work included, are surveys among Transmission System Operators on the foreseen communication requirements, as well as other theoretical studies on acceptable delays and other performance characteristics, such as data loss, that Wide Area Control applications put on the Information and Communication System. Much of the above referenced work still needs verification either though experimental work or through simulations. It is especially important to simulate large scale communication infrastructures that consider background traffic under different operational conditions in the power system, such as under disturbances. The paper is concluded with some remarks on future direction of work within the field.