monologue. Thus the traditional role of telecommunications as a strategic asset and military asset in time of war has become a political asset for popular movements and is changing the political balance of governments. In some ways it hastens the decline of the nation state towards more complex social, business and organisational interactions. As democracy and telecommunications seem to be linked to economic progress, SO their spread will tend to drive the economic INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 - © OECD 2006 2. TELECOMS INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030 rise of the NICs eventually to challenge the United States as the world's dominant economic power. By 2030 global capability will no longer just be a US prerogative, since China will also be present, as will the EU, to project their power abroad. Thus telecommunications infrastructure will be more transnational and global players will emerge as they are doing in mobile (e.g. Vodafone, Orange, Telefonica, Hutchison, etc.). Telecommunications internationally will continue to be the driver of outsourced job-migration or offshoring, with some five million jobs already exported to Asia from western OECD countries. Offshoring will continue to be a driver of telecommunications. For military reasons such as terrorist threats, certain new telecommunications infrastructures of an ad hoc nature will be researched and put into service. Also, use of standard new safeguards and security abilities within the telecommunications infrastructures, such as forced legal interception and decoding of communications, will be introduced to networks worldwide. Security Fundamentalist politics, the migration of differing religious and ethnic groups, continued social inequalities and organised crime will drive international tensions through terrorist and criminal activities. Thus security issues will be to the fore. They are a main driver of telecommunications infrastructure design and specifically the next generation of alternative wireless