In early 2002, when the idea for this book was born and initial drafting began, the outlook for the telecommunications industry, including the wireless world, was beginning to look bleak, especially in comparison to the growth days of the late 1990s. Certain wireless telecommunications companies, such as Winstar and Metricom, began to face financial trouble, but the truly wide-ranging problems that began to impact the entire telecommunications market in mid-2002 were not yet evident. Few, if any, experts foresaw the impending bankruptcy of the telecommunications giant, WorldCom, or the dissolution of other major telecommunications companies, such as KPN Qwest and Teleglobe.

There are many potential reasons for this decline in the telecommunications industry, including the blame of its own players for overzealousness in expansion and profit making, as will be discussed in Chapter 9 of this book. However, whatever the reasons, what is clear is that the telecommunications industry, although caught in a retrenchment, will rebuild itself, albeit in a different manner and will reemerge as a vibrant sector. This includes the wireless telecommunications industry that is in the midst of reshaping and retrenching itself to reflect the realities of doing business in the twenty-first century.