. Previously many standards, such as ana- log mobile telephone standards, did not even support a multioperator envi- ronment. The initial requirement of the digital mobile telecommunications system (GSM) in Europe was the support of multiple networks in the same geographical area. The deregulation of the telecommunications business has reduced tariffs on long-distance calls and mobile calls to a small fraction of the tariffs paid in the mid-1980s. The reduction of fees has further increased the demand for services, which has prompted reductions in the price of ter- minal equipment, such as mobile telephones, and the fees for calls. These developments have demonstrated how dangerous it is for manu- facturers to be too dependent on a single domestic customer. Many telecom- munications manufacturers that were independent in the past do not exist as independent suppliers anymore. This process still continues. At the same time, new small manufacturers are appearing. Their window of opportunity is to produce special equipment, in which the largest vendors are not inter- ested, or systems for brand new rapidly growing services. Plain old telephone service (POTS) will still be important in the future, but mobile and data communications grow most rapidly in volume. The two main directions of this development are in the areas of voice communica- tions, which will become mobile, and data communications, which will become wideband, high-data-rate communications. Because of deregulation, subscribers can choose which network operator they want to use to get wide- band access to the Internet over ordinary telephone lines. Cable TV opera- tors are also providing similar services in competitive terms. The provision of developing multimedia services in the future will be especially interesting. The expansion of the Internet, with its improving capability to transmit voice in addition to data, presents a new challenge to the public telecommunications network operators. Wideband access to Introduction to Telecommunications homes wil