n impassable for parts of the year. The canals paid for the first railway lines in the late 1820s as feeder networks, which by 1840 were the dominant transport mode globally. By the 1920s the US railroads had started to finance local feeder systems of roads, and this network by 1940 had challenged them; by 1950 roads were the dominant transport network in the United States. In telecommunications, the main American telegraph operator Western Union was offered the Bell voice telephony patents for USD 100 000 in 1875 and turned them down. Voice telephony was seen only as a technology useful to relay a local message to the Western Union telegraph office, for then sending long distance by Morse as a telegram message, as represented below. Figure 2.5. Accessibility and telecoms development Wireless technologies will replace traditional network infrastructures due to their greater accessibility and lower "last kilometre" cost - the mass cost Alternative wireless technologies ACCESSIBILITY Delivery Broadband Mesh CR In travel over the Air travel last 200 years, Road vehicles by jet accessibility to the mass of the public Cellular mobile radio (2G,3G) has won each battle. Railways Wired telephony Telegraph Canals office 51203 autos and the same goes for telecommunications Telegraphy Accessibility = control of access + cost of access + ease of access + ubiquity + speed of rollout Similarly, a second and more important transition is under way, from fixed voice telecommunications to mobile voice and text messaging (with SMS) due to ease of access. Mobile is far more accessible in that the mobile handset is the telecommunications equivalent of the car, which can join the telecommunications "highway" from anywhere there is coverage. And the service accessing mechanism, the handset, is in private ownership, a possession. Moreover, access is higher because rollout is far faster than fixed, due to the INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 © OECD 2006 2. TELECOMS INFRASTRUCTURE