Economics and technology in the evolution of networks

Technology is providing a growing range of choices for future networks. Which ones will be deployed will depend largely on economics. For example, IMS and NGN appear to be motivated primarily by the desire of service providers to gain more control and more revenues, as opposed to a horizontal structure of the industry that would relegate them to simple connectivity providers. Some of the main economic factors that play a role in telecommunications decisions will be surveyed and speculations on how competing interests will be accommodated will be presented.