Modern broadband networks carry vast amounts of data around the world. They have transformed human society, from local to global, and they are an essential ingredient of economic growth. But all of this has only become possible over the last two hundred years; for thousands of years before that, our ancestors could only send the simplest of messages by lighting beacon fires.

This book describes the repeated waves of disruptive innovation which have taken us from beacon fires to fibre broadband. It looks at how entrepreneurs have exploited each new innovation, and at how governments have responded by regulating them. It compares how this process played out in four countries which adopted different approaches to harnessing innovation: France, Germany, the UK and the US.

Stephen Unger has extensive experience of telecommunications. He has worked for companies that built networks, as well as the public bodies that regulate them. Whilst at Ofcom, the UK regulator, he led the creation of a new regulatory framework designed to drive investment in advanced broadband networks.