hey present a restrictive practice, as well as the encouragement of alternative competing infrastructure technologies. Which past trends seem to be unsustainable in the future? Most important perhaps is a sustainable cost base of infrastructure for the future user population. The current level created in the OECD community sets today's baseline but it is too high for the segment of user population with the highest potential for future growth - the newly industrialising countries (NICs) - and SO cannot be sustained. One feature of the market over the past few decades has often been the technocentric push from major players such as operators and equipment suppliers, offering technologies from a supply-side position, not as consumable products and services. Although it is unlikely to disappear, the weight of consumer power is now realised and this phenomenon of supply-side dominance is probably unsustainable. The above two points are, to a considerable extent, a consequence of control by dominant incumbent players, operators or suppliers. With increasing competition, this market power is unlikely to be sustainable, so that the role of the national incumbents is likely to diminish as new groupings form, often across national borders. The impact on infrastructure will be to increase competition between infrastructures, as cellular mobile, new mobile, Internet ISP bulk transport, cable TV, etc. expand the competitive scope. Turning to network architectures, the past telecommunications industry view based on voice with circuit switching being extended for data is being swept aside by data-oriented architectures. Moreover, the mix of telecommunications standards from bodies such as the ITU and the CEPT, which has already diminished, is likely to become even less important. Data communications standards, from the Internet community and the computer industry bodies such as the United States' IEEE, are likely to underpin telecommunications infrastructures, with their focus on an open, unregulated market. A prime example is 