Today we are only early in the second century of radio. Personal wireless devices are much more recent - 1985 saw the launch of the first (very expensive) analogue carphones in the UK by new companies which have become today's global mobile phone operators.

The 1990s saw digital cellular transform this into phones for the masses; the 2000s saw this become phones for the world - globally more than 5bn people have a cellphone today.

This presentation explores the paradigm shift that is happening within the communications industry. It will begin with a review of the emergence and development of this most globalised of industries, describing recent changes in market sizeand geography, the drivers of growth, wireless technologies, network infrastructure, services and user devices. It will then consider the "three waves of wireless" that we have seen - initially voice communications, then mobile information and the new era we are now enetering of dynamic personalisation and the impact this will have upon consumer mass markets and on business and enterprise. In this context, the talk will discuss a number of new technology enablers, trends, capabilities and battlegrounds.

The talk will conclude by considering what lies ahead, and the role played by vision-led research in growing the industry, and the potential for the communications industry to help transform the opportunities and business models of other industries, postulating some future technical possibilities and economic implications for the UK.