third-generation service at speeds comparable to that of dial-up service. 1xEV-DO offers higher-speed, high- capacity wireless Internet connectivity that is optimized for packet transport. It provides a combination of high network performance and strong economic benefits that are unprecedented in mobile, portable, and fixed services networks. 1X has been available in Canada for a while, and 1X EV-DO has been available in South Korea for quite some time. And Verizon and Sprint now offer the service in the United States as well. Cognitive Radio One other technology innovation that should be mentioned as part of the future of the industry is cognitive radio. Cognitive radio describes radios that provide software-based control of signal modulation techniques, wide-band or narrow-band operation, communications security functions (such as frequency hopping), and waveform requirements of current and evolving standards over a broad frequency range. Cognitive radio is applicable across the wireless industry and provides efficient, inexpensive solutions to several challenges found in current systems. For example, cognitive radio-based end-user devices and net- work equipment can be dynamically programmed for better perfor- mance, delivery of enhanced on-demand feature sets, and the provisioning of a wide variety of advanced services that provide new rev- enue streams for the service provider. The cognitive radio concept is based on the use of a simple hardware platform that allows customers to dynamically modify both the network and the end-user device to perform different functions at different times. This allows end-users to have choices with pay-as-you-go features, device independence, and scalable hardware. It allows network operators to dif- ferentiate their services without having to support multiple handsets, and to move quickly into new markets and offer new, tiered services to increase revenue. Cognitive radio also allows infrastructure suppliers to lower their costs and protect themselves from price erosion due t