In his preface, Matt Bross explained that behind the emergence of 3G and WLAN access technologies there is the convergence between the worlds of mobile and the Internet, two of the fastest growing sectors of communications today. This presents not only great opportunities for the future of mobile and wireless telecommunications, but also great challenges in understanding the relative position of different technologies in this future. The aim of this book is to review the contribution of different wireless access technologies to that future, considering, in particular, how these different technologies can be confederated in a core, all-IP network. This edition also reviews the opportunities of opening up access to telecommunications systems, via application programming interfaces (APIs), for third party application developers mobile Web Services. All of this depends on the economic value created by mobile applications. These are reviewed with an emphasis on the user interface as well as opportunities for video-streaming. Throughout, this book considers the economic and regulatory issues associated with wireless communications, with the final chapter reviewing the history and potential future of mobility from a user perspective.

The first chapter, by Mark Birchler et al, is a joint publication between BT Exact and Motorola that positions the roles of 3G and WLANs in mobility by using scenario modelling of future applications and services with detailed techno-economic modelling of various networks to support these. The chapter also identifies new opportunities in the local loop for photonic networks using radio-onfibre techniques. This technology is described in...