make the change more concrete is to write a book and compare its content with the previously issued books, written five to seven years ago. Another approach is to use a traditional thoroughly tested network design course from the 1990s and apply its sequence of tasks to the environment we have today. After working with both the vertical and the new multimedia network the conclusion is clear: It is a paradigm shift. The network course mentioned above is called 'The Middleton case study'. It covers everything from a business plan to a fairly complete high-level network design that sup- ports the business plan. The case study extended over five days and was attended by operator managers and planning staff from all over the world. Within Ericsson the main target group was marketing staff, managers and 'system engineers'. The case study focus, as well as the focus of this book, is on functions, not products. The choice of technology in the case study was a pragmatic one, based on what best served the business plan of a specific actor in his specific environment. There are no dedicated chapters in this book on specific systems, although UMTS has been used a number of times to exemplify for example traffic cases, numbering and quality of service. A main reason for this approach is that plenty of system-oriented material already exists in books, on the Internet etc. The book is by no means a handbook. A handbook requires a deeper level. How- ever, by applying a sequence of subjects similar to a case study we also get a checklist and a natural sequence of the chapters. The rough case study sequence is illustrated in Figure 1.6. This could be compared with a 'real' operator network planning cycle, which may look like Figure 1.7. When managing the process sequence in a professional way you are 'Building a Successful Telecommunications Business in the 21st Century' or 'Becoming a Successful Telecommunications Operator in the Multimedia Society'. These are two interesting book title proposals from reviewers. The three main st