y jobs [8]. 'Information' is at the centre of ICT industry activities, whose processes deal with how this 'information' is gathered, stored, analysed and disseminated. This information flow, as illus- trated in Figure 1.5, is one way to analyse how effectively an organisation manages and uses the information it has. Among these processes, telecommunications can be defined as the technology and business processes associated with gathering and disseminating information. "Modern" telecommunications, defined by its use of mechanical and electrical equipment and provision of a much faster transmission of messages, is a relatively recent development and its history can be traced to the late 18th century. Developments of visual and electrical telegraphy and telephony have significantly transformed how we tele-communicate. Modern telecommunications has been instrumental in the coming of a new age of global cooperation (and at times conflict) across national boundaries, leading to our present-day world order. In particular, the digital communications revolution of the last two decades of the 20th century has been the platform on which the ICT industry has been built. Telecommunications has been the subject of research in multinational companies as well as major universities and government-funded institutions for more than two centuries. According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) 6.8% of all patents filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2013 were in the telecommunications field. Indeed electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (14897 filings), computer technology (14684 filings), and digital communication (14059 filings) were the top three areas of patent filings [9]. Moreover, the top four and all of the top 15 patent applicants were either purely telecommunications companies or had telecommunications units (Figure 1.6). Telecommunications is also a major industry segment in its own right with many companies including operators, manufacturers and service providers among the world's most va