and pulleys. These technologies were then combined together with ingenuity into throwing machines known as ballistas, from which the term ballistics is derived. Engineering in effect was the process through which usefulness or value was realised from several separate com- ponent technologies. More prosaically, Bran Ferren, the computer scientist, hit the nail on the head by defining technology as' stuff that doesn't work yet'. 1 1.2 Differentiating Invention and Innovation Similarly, the words invention and innovation are often used interchangeably but are also distinct and separate though closely linked. An invention will typically be an outcome from a 'mechanical art' and will result in an enabling technology. An innovation will generally be a novel use of that enabling technology and can therefore be categorised as engineering. In the modern world the words technology and invention can be correctly and broadly applied to almost any type of mechanical component. The specification and performance of these components is usually described and prescribed in a technical standard. For example modern mobile phone is a collection of component technologies, each with a discrete purpose but a common objective, to send or receive voice or data over a radio channel. Each component technology will have had engineering (ingenuity) applied to it to ensure the component behaves as expected and required. 1.3 The Role of Standards, Regulation and Competition Policy The standards documents describe the expected performance and behaviour of the functions of the complete product. Engineering is applied to ensure the complete product behaves in accordance with these standards. The cost and realisable value of a wireless network is heavily influenced by the characteris- tics of the radio channels used for communication. This is because wireless communications have a unique ability to interfere with one another. In the US in the 1920s for example, compet- ing radio broadcasters progressively increased transmitted power close to the po