The third wave of technologies builds on the technologies of
the first and second waves and implements these technologies, broadly resulting
in the use of ICT in other
socio-economic sectors with decisive influence on efficiency and quality in the
production processes. This is called “Information Society Technologies”. Examples
on the deployment of ICT in private and public sectors include E-banking,
E-health, E-government, E-learning and a range of other E-based processes/activities.
These implementations are then likely to give rise to the
further advanced development of infrastructure networks, including ubiquitous
networks, the portable internet and the automated Internet of things, rather
than people. Furthermore, many new technologies are expected to be smaller scale
and cheaper to deploy, so this will change investment cycles and patterns. Smaller players will be able to enter markets
and fuel network expansion with relatively small scale investments.
The key elements of both the second wave and the third wave of
technological changes thus impact the techno-policy environment. Pursuing the overall more multi-faceted and complicated objectives
will, however, also influence the technological trends. This interrelationship
implies that the overall problem area of regulation includes a list of
parameters resulting in multi-dimensional success criteria, compared to the more
simple success criteria of securing competition and universal service in the
first bundle of reforms. This is not to argue that the first bundle of reforms
has succeeded in introducing full competition as the general market structure.
This is still an important issue in most markets, but the second and third wave
of technology introduces new challenges that have to be addressed by regulators
based on national policies for the development of ICT.