e important consequences for the state of competition in the provision of infrastructure services, as well for the pricing of individual services. For instance, in the case of telecoms, providers of triple play may offer telephony for "free" since the marginal cost for them of providing the service (VoIP) is close to zero. As well, one may conceive of water treatment operators, eager to get hold of waste for producing electricity, offering sewage services at a discount to their customers, or electricity utilities offering free telecom services. The consequences for industry structure could be profound. While such interaction across infrastructures may generate synergies, it is also a source of additional vulnerability: failure in one infrastructure may have serious domino effects on the others. It is unsurprising therefore that this growing interdependence of critical infrastructures is gaining attention in discussions of safety, security, and reliability of supply. Large scale versus small scale Another trend that seems to emerge from the analysis is a movement away from the large monolithic infrastructures of the past in favour of greater reliance on local autonomy, self-reliance and mobility. Clearly, in many cases economies of scale will ensure the persistence of large-scale installations. But INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 © OECD 2006 1. A CROSS-SECTORAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURES TO 2030 equally, a trend toward smaller, more distributed systems can be observed. This trend is driven in part by technology, in part by deregulation and liberalisation, in part by security concerns, in part by environmental considerations, and in part by the difficulties governments have in raising capital for large infrastructure development projects. Examples abound. In telecommunications, ATW (alternative wireless technology) local loops are emerging for health services and care of the elderly. These systems can be financed, built and op