hanged over time, all countries In per cent Electricity Roads Telecom Total Note: Water and sanitation excluded as lack of historical data. Source: Marianne Fay, Tito Yepes, Investing in Infrastructure, What is Needed from 2000 to 2010?, Policy Research Working Paper 3 102, The World Bank, Infrastructure Vice Presidency, July 2003. How will telecommunications infrastructure growth proceed in terms of level and qualities? A discussion follows of the impact of the various drivers explored previously, especially that of disposable wealth. Cost pressures reshape infrastructure For many people, use of the Internet is now perceived as being free. But how did this happen? In the five years up to 2000/01 certain singular events, never seen before in the industry, specifically the temporary imbalance between bandwidth supply and demand and the financial markets' over-exuberance in financing expansion, created a public Internet at low cost to the consumer. To some extent, this was precipitated by the one-off events in the US telecommunications markets which, due to its very nature, spread globally. In consequence, downward pressures of VoIP on revenues of the OECD's carriers of domestic and international traffic may be expected in the long term, and will be an irreversible trend. What is significant for the incumbent telephone operators, and their infrastructures, is that VoIP technology will require severe cost containment action as margins fall. It will drive adoption of a business model based on the Web service operators as VoIP technology expands its hold, driven by suppliers such as Cisco and Intel as much as the new competing service provider entrants. INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 © OECD 2006 2. TELECOMS INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030 Such revenue declines will be offset by continued strong demand for mobile radio services of all kinds worldwide, especially expansion in the less developed countries. But revenue gains in these segments cannot restore declining ope