o further meetings are scheduled for June and December 2006. The report, together with the policy recommendations, will be finalised end-2006 and published in 2007. The work is being conducted in five phases: 1) Assessment of future demand for infrastructure investment; 2) Identification of critical issues for the future; 3) Consideration of the future viability of current business models; 4) Improving the institutional and framework conditions; 5) Conclusions and recommendations. This publication presents the results from the first and second phases of the work. It is based on a series of expert papers whose purpose was to establish a broader picture of trends and developments that are likely to impact on infrastructures and infrastructure investment over the next few decades, and to assess how the longer- term future may unfold in each of the infrastructure sectors under review - electricity transmission and distribution, surface transport, water, and telecommunications and INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 © OECD 2006 PREFACE broadband. In addition to the drivers traditionally reviewed in such forward-looking studies (economic growth, population, income levels, etc.), the authors have explored the potential impact on infrastructure development of other factors such as climate change, security issues, the likely evolution of public finances, human settlement patterns, and technology-induced substitution effects. All the papers in this volume have benefited from expert advice and comment from the Steering Group. The project is being led by the OECD's International Futures Programme, a forward-looking multidisciplinary unit which provides the OECD Secretary-General and the Organisation with early warning on emerging policy issues. It does this by identifying major developments and analysing key long-term concerns to help governments map strategy. Its role is also to promote horizontal, cross-Directorate themes in the OECD. Hence, the work is being conducte