 the i3 group had a plan to start work on a new fibre optic network in early 2011 using the underground sewer system. Unfortunately, the company became embroiled in an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office following a failure to deliver on similar projects in the UK. So far public funds have been spent, private capital has been raised and a fibre optic network has failed to appear, not the most promising of starts for a new funding model designed to transform broadband connectivity. The promised jobs have appeared elusive as well. These projects are perhaps better attempted in command and control economies with a more deterministic political purpose. Singapore for example has a government plan to spend 500 Euros per household and it can be imagined that failure there will not be an option. The justification for these investments is based on an expectation of improved industrial, social and political efficiency with additional benefits such as lower carbon emission based on an assumption that the need to travel will reduce. The underlying argument is that emerging economies need broadband in order to become developed economies and developed economies need broadband in order to remain internationally competitive. The combined investment, however, is likely to be of the order of hundreds of billions of dollars and it is fair to question whether a better overall return could be realised by providing connectivity to bottom-end rather than middle- (emerging) or top-end (developed) economies. Wireless Radio Access Network Hardware 12.7.8 Universal Narrowband Access in Survival Economies A bottom-end economy is a survival economy in which the average annual wage is less than ten dollars per day ($3260 dollars per year). Emerging economies have incomes between $3260 and $20 000. Developed countries have median incomes greater than $20 000. Day to day life in survival economies is dominated by the need to find food, water and shelter (though TV is popular too). Many of the four billion people trapped in survival econom