The telephone is more than one hundred thirty-years-old, the internet and the cell phone over twenty. And now, today, this ever more dense entanglement of telecommunications networks is coupled with an intertwining of human and social networks: we are on the way to becoming.... networks.

Didier Lombard is both the “living memory” of French and European industry, and a visionary businessman, at the helm of one of the most active corporations in the world in a sector that is essential to growth. For the first time, he presents to a general readership his view of the technological developments that have occurred starting in the 1970s to the turn of the twenty-first century. Above all, he shares his vision of what our exchanges, our consumer behavior, and our daily lives will be like in the near future.

In fact, we have already entered into the “second life” of networks.

Beyond what is at stake in a key sector of the economy, to better understand the new world that is already our own.

Didier Lombard is CEO and Chairman of the Board of France Telecom-Orange. A graduate of the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique, he holds a telecommunications and engineering degree as well as a doctorate in European Economics. He played an important role in the inception and design of the first French telecommunications satellites. He also contributed to the development of the GSM [Global System for Mobile communications]. He subsequently was appointed as Director of Industrial Strategy for the French Ministry of the Economy then Ambassador for International Investments.

1. Couverture
2. Titre
3. Copyright
4. Acknowledgments
5. Foreword
6. Introduction
   1. 1975-1995: Three “Big Bangs”
   2. 1995–2004: First Steps Toward the Second Life of Networks
   3. The User Becomes an Active Network Node
   4. The Emergence of the “Free” Business Paradigm
   5. The “Amalgamation” of the Value Chain
   6. Fully Embracing the Second Life of Networks
7. Chapter 1 - Once Upon a Time, in Networks’ Earlier Life…
   1. The Inherent Primitivism of First-Life Networks
   2. An Unexpected Route to the Future
   3. 1975–1995: The Long Transition
   4. The First Big Bang: Digitization
   5. The Second Big Bang: The Internet
   6. The Third Big Bang: Mobile Networks
8. Chapter 2 - The Gestation of Second Life Networks
   1. The Development of Information Technology: “Simple is Beautiful”
   2. The Internet “Toolbox”
   3. The Development of Broadband
   4. Falling Prices Spurring Adoption
   5. From a Two-Layer Value Chain…
   6. … Towards a Multi-Layer Value Chain
   7. The Coexistence of “Old” and “New” Players
9. Chapter 3 - We Are the Networks
   1. Unexpected Uses of Common Technologies
   2. The Emergence of Social Networks
   3. The User as a Node at the Crossroads of Multiple Networks
   4. New Generations for New Technologies
   5. Beyond the Search Engine: Recommendation, Redundancy and Reputation
10. Chapter 4 - Free as a Business Paradigm
    1. The Free Business Paradigm and Telecommunications
    2. Open Source: the “Free” Model Comes to Software Distribution
    3. The Advent of the Online Advertising-Supported Model
    4. Social Networks and Advertising
    5. Content and Advertising
    6. The Sustainability of Advertising Models?
11. Chapter 5 - A Premonitory Turmoil
    1. Horizontal Amalgamations Among Operators and Equipment Manufacturers
    2. Mergers Between “New” and “Old” Players in Different Layers of the Value chain
    3. The Growing Number of Vertical Combinations
    4. Reasons for the Value chain’s Amalgamation
    5. Partnerships and R&D 2.0
12. Chapter 6 - Outlook: Entering the Core of Networks’ Second Life
    1. The Exponential Development of Connectivity
    2. The Growth in Video and TV
    3. Towards the Limits of Networks’ Capacity
    4. The Imperative of Very High Speed Fixed and Mobile Networks
    5. Datacenters and “Cloud Computing”
    6. Ensuring Quality Growth
    7. Getting Investors to Invest…
    8. When Europe and Asia will Wake up
    9. Protecting Personal Data
    10. What Future for the Value Chain?
13. Bibliography
14. Notes
15. Table