The complexity and richness of telecommunications traffic is such that one may despair to find any regularity or explanatory principles. Nonetheless, the discovery of scaling behavior in tele-traffic has provided hope that parsimonious models can be found. The statistics of scaling behavior present many challenges, especially in non-stationary environments. In this paper, we overview the state of the art in this area, focusing on the capabilities of the wavelet transform as a key tool for unravelling the mysteries of traffic statistics and dynamics.