ons The Role of SMS in Transactions, Political Influence and Public Safety The Mobile Phone as a Dominant Communications Medium? Commercial Issues - The End of the Cheque Book? Part III NETWORK HARDWARE Wireless Radio Access Network Hardware Historical Context From Difference Engine to Connection Engine IP Network Efficiency Constraints Telecoms - The Tobacco Industry of the Twentyfirst Century? Amortisation Time Scales Roads and Railways and the Power and Water Economy - The Justification of Long-Term Returns 12.6.1 Historical Precedents - Return on Infrastructure Investment Time Scales Telecommunications and Economic Theory 12.7.1 Telecom Politics in Malaysia - An Example of Long-Term Planning and Mixed Results 12.7.2 The UK as an Example 12.7.3 The Advantage of an Autocracy? 12.7.4 UK, US and ROW (Rest of the World) Implications 12.7.5 The Role of Telecommunications in Emerging Economies 12.7.6 The Telecommunications Economy - A Broader View of Broadband 12.7.7 Australia as an Example 12.7.8 Universal Narrowband Access in Survival Economies 12.7.9 Universal Narrowband Access in Survival Economies - The Impact on Developed and Emerging Economies The New Wireless Economy in a New Political Age? Connected Economies - A Definition 12.9.1 Enlightenment and Measurement 1750 to 1820 12.9.2 Manufacture by Machine 1800 to 1860 12.9.3 Age of the Engineer 1820 to 1880 12.9.4 Industrial Town 12.9.5 Second Industrial Revolution 12.9.6 The Age of Mass Production 12.9.7 Defiant Modernism 12.9.8 Design Diversity 1950 to 1965 12.9.9 Age of Ambivalence Contents 12.10 Inferences and Implications 12.11 The Newly Connected Economy 12.11.1 Connecting the Unconnected 12.11.2 The Dawn of a New Age of Enlightenment? 12.11.3 Enabling Wireless Technologies - Femtocells Wireless Core Network Hardware The Need to Reduce End-to-End Delivery Cost 13.1.1 Multiplexing Gain Microwave-Link Economics 13.2.1 Point-to-Multipoint The Backhaul Mix The HRAN and LRAN Summary - Backhaul Options Economic Comparisons Other Topics Cable Network and Fibre 