ment with great detail the reasons why some innovations succeed and some fail. These resources have direct relevance to the formulation of present day industrial strategy in the telecommunications industry. I would also like to thank the GSM Association for permission to reproduce some of the study work undertaken for them in 1997, Peregrine Semiconductor, Ethertronics, Antenova, Avago and Quintel for their permission to use specific product data references and the team at Nokia Siemens Networks who under Harri Holma's guidance produce such excellent technical books on LTE that this particular work does not aspire to emulate. Other thanks are due to my long-suffering family, Liz, Tom and Hannah, though they onerously familiar with my tendency to engage in projects that are interesting but seem to make little apparent financial sense. I have also found myself drawing on my father's work and experience gained over a fifty-year career in telecommunications engineering. Some of his knowledge can be found in the Newnes Telecommunications Pocket Book that he coauthored with his business colleague Ted Edis, published posthumously in 1992. And finally my thanks to Mark Hammond, Susan Barclay, Sandra Grayson and the produc- tion team at John Wiley who I am anticipating will be their usual helpful selves in guiding me towards the production of a final manuscript that passes market muster. I did suggest that approaching the writing of this work as a homage to Mr Moorcock might result in a work that sold in the tens of thousands thereby making us all exceedingly rich. Mark pointed out that on the basis of my previous publishing history this outcome, though much to be wished for, was unfortunately exceedingly unlikely. Still, it's always good to start these projects with a healthy dose of enthusiasm, though I have just noticed that it has taken me 45 minutes to write the 1000 words of this initial opening piece, which suggests that 15 000 words a day might be overoptimistic. But onwards and upwards, a job begun is a job half 