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The fortifications of Athens have been a recurrent theme of archaeological investigation. In the past two centuries, parts of the walls have been located during rescue interventions at numerous sites in the urban fabric. At present, the visibility of the entire monument remains rather low as the traces of the walls are hidden beneath the modern city, marginalized within larger archaeological sites or preserved entirely by record. Despite the high level of scholarly work devoted to synthesize the available material, the volume of information accumulated over the years requires a novel approach that would systematize different types of evidence using digital media. In this respect, we attempt to revisit the city walls of Athens through the use of geospatial technologies. We target the informed development of an efficient GIS platform to record, store, integrate, explore and eventually disseminate resources on the Athenian fortifications. Our research employs published and archival sources (e.g. excavation drawings) in combination with historical maps (e.g. early cadastral maps, first maps of modern Athens) and complementary historical evidence (e.g. writings, illustrations, photography) to locate, document and integrate in space and time available data on lost and surviving fortification remains.

Data regarding the association between preexisting cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and the outcomes of patients requiring hospitalization for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are limited. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of preexisting CVRFs or CVDs on the outcomes of patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in a Korean healthcare system.Patients with COVID-19 admitted to 10 hospitals in Daegu Metropolitan City, Korea, were examined. All sequentially hospitalized patients between February 15, 2020, and April 24, 2020, were enrolled in this study. All patients were confirmed to have COVID-19 based on the positive results on the polymerase chain reaction testing of nasopharyngeal samples. Clinical outcomes during hospitalization, such as requiring intensive care and invasive mechanical ventilation (MV) and death, were evaluated. Moreover, data on baseline comorbidities such as a history of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, current smoking, heart failure, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular accidents, and other chronic cardiac diseases were obtained.Of all the patients enrolled, 954 (42.0%) had preexisting CVRFs or CVDs. Among the CVRFs, the most common were hypertension (28.8%) and diabetes mellitus (17.0%). The prevalence rates of preexisting CVRFs or CVDs increased with age (Based on the findings of this study, the patients with confirmed COVID-19 with preexisting CVRFs or CVDs had worse clinical outcomes. Caution is required in dealing with these patients at triage.

This study aims to reveal a set of important factors related to FTTH tariffs and potentially differentiate them among the different EU countries, when constructing a dataset of 28 EU countries between 2013 and 2018 with tariff data 30–100 Mbps (TR30) and 100+ Mbps (TR100). We find that there is a negative relationship between penetration and tariffs. As penetration increases, that causes a negative effect to tariffs overall that tend to drop. Additionally, competition is also a significant constraint, with the strongest effect in the TR100 case. The highly competitive countries, with less concentrated competition converge to lower tariffs during the study's time period. GDP per capita adds a positive effect to both TR30 and TR100 cases, where the developed EU countries' users tend to express overall a willingness to pay more for the same speed and service. Most importantly, these countries should achieve faster their goals, since the subscribers' willingness to pay for high-speed service combined with competitive markets at the right service offerings in place, will foster the 2020 national broadband plan regarding ultrafast connectivity. TR100 forecasts were generated between 2019 and 2025 for a specific set of countries, where values converge into constant levels since most markets approach a saturation level.

Recent advances in recording equipment, software solutions and intra-site applications have supported the widespread integration of 3D spatial technologies within archaeological fieldwork. However, the heavy dependence on digital technology to organize excavation research does not come without costs, especially in the case of long-term excavation projects that have employed 3D documentation procedures and need to use, maintain and preserve their 3D archives. This work revisits the digital data collection of the excavation project in Paliambela Kolindros, Greece, which provided one of the first working examples regarding a full 3D workflow in excavation recording and interpretative reasoning. As part of our attempt to integrate part of the 3D excavation archive in the ARIADNEplus infrastructure and with the intention to build up its informational capacity, the article reviews the entire methodology and identifies cases where data reassessment or reprocessing activities link directly to digital knowledge production practices. Based on our experience, we discuss the possibility of regarding the excavation event as a historically situated conversion into an archive to be further transformed and perpetually re-interpreted in the digital continuum. By stressing the dependence of archaeological knowledge work to digital data provenance and transparent data curation practices, we have a chance to both harness the benefits of 3D GIS and improve data preservation chances.

In rural areas in Europe, the deployment of High-Speed Broadband access networks lags far behind the urban and suburban areas due to difficulties of fiber rollout in the final meters. FTTC VDSL is the most widespread technology used for NGA network deployments in Europe but the coverage of VDSL networks is still limited in rural areas. FTTdp networks using G.fast have been proposed as a cost-effective and future-proof alternative to FTTH and FTTB especially in rural areas where FTTC and VDSL cannot always deliver service speeds of 30 Mbps which is the minimum bandwidth defined in the European Digital Agenda as a target to be met by 2020. However, the new target of EU Commission for Gigabit Society and 100 Mbps connections, upgradable to 1 Gbps, for all households in 2025 are unlikely to be achieved by VDSL Vectoring and other copper-based technologies. On the other hand, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) networks based on LTE technology can be used as a “last mile” solution to provide high-speed broadband access to areas where fixed broadband is limited. LTE technology offers high-speed connections able to support internet browsing and IP services, while it can theoretically support up to 300 Mbps depending on network load and sharing. Thus, it can be considered a viable alternative to other fixed network solutions especially when considering future upgrades to 5G networks that promise gigabit speeds per user. In this paper, a techno-economic study is performed to assess the feasibility of an FWA network deployment based on LTE technology in comparison to FTTdp G.fast and FTTC VDSL network rollout for delivering service speeds of 30 Mbps in rural areas. A variety of different population density, competition and regulation policy scenarios is considered. Cash flow results are presented and standard financial indexes for the business cases are discussed. The results are being assessed through a sensitivity and risk analysis to determine the most influential factors on the return on the investment. Furthermore, the (non) profitability of these cases and the subsidization needed from structural funds are analyzed. The results are aimed to contribute to the debate over network evolution scenarios among academia, industry, regulators, policy makers and governments.

Whilst the deployment of next generation access networks (NGANs) is undoubtedly beneficial to the economy, new legal developments in the United States (US) regarding the issue of net neutrality (NN) pose a new challenge not only to policy makers but to telecommunication providers as well, that could justify a fresh approach when assessing NGANs investments. In particular, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) subverted extant NN rules in the US and if the European Union (EU) decides to follow a similar deregulatory path in the future it could change the way telecommunications providers on both sides of the Atlantic lay down their optical-fibre network infrastructure investment plans. For instance, if traffic prioritization is allowed then diversification of revenue sources can be achieved by charging customers for privileged data delivery to their premises. Currently, NGANs roll-out throughout EU is an ongoing process in a setting whereby access regulation in the form of network element unbundling is already imposed. As a result, these legal developments form a new context within which it makes sense to assess the role of NGANs wholesale access pricing in tandem with the degree of commitment to NN rules so as to i) determine their combinatorial impact on private telecommunications operators' financial figures and ii) capture their competitive interactions. Towards this end, an important aspect of particular value to market players (i.e. incumbents and competitive providers – CPs), and policy makers (i.e. National Regulatory Authorities – NRAs) that this article aims to examine is how to employ the option-game (OG) analysis, that reflects the intersection of game theory (GT) and real options (ROs), to model the competitive interactions between participants in a particular competition game set-up by means of deriving possible Nash-equilibrium (NE) outcomes within a regulatory setting part of which is the commitment or non-commitment to the NN principle. This, hybrid, evaluation tool is applied on top of a conventional discounted cash flow (DCF) techno-economic analysis assessment of an NGAN investment opportunity.

SHIELD is an EU-funded project, targeting at thedesign and development of a novel cybersecurity framework, withthe aim of which offers security-as-a-Service in an evolved telcoenvironment. The SHIELD framework leverages NFV (NetworkFunctionsVirtualization) and SDN (Software-DefinedNetworking) for virtualization and dynamic placement ofvirtualised security appliances in the network (virtual NetworkSecurity Functions – vNSFs), Big Data analytics for real-timeincident detection and mitigation, as well as attestation techniquesfor securing both the infrastructure and the services. This paperpresents a detail Roadmapping analysis and identifies the factorsthat will affect market adoption and the evolution of SHIELD orsimilar cybersecurity solutions.

The issue of Net Neutrality (NN), aimed at protecting consumer rights by preserving the openness of the Internet, has been fiercely debated in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) the last decade. To that aim, binding new rules were adopted on both sides of the Atlantic in 2015. But, as of now, US calls into question the necessity of these rules after the appointment of Ajit Pai as the new Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The purpose of this article is to examine the potential impact of a possible deviation from NN principles in the EU, on the basis of end-user charging for prioritized data transmission, on economic replicability test (ERT) conduct, if European policy makers, mainly regulators, eventually, decide to follow US's deregulatory path.

SHIELD is an EU-funded project, targeting at the design and development of a novel cybersecurity framework, which offers security-as-a-Service in an evolved telco environment. The SHIELD framework leverages NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) and SDN (Software-Defined Networking) for virtualization and dynamic placement of virtualised security appliances in the network (virtual Network Security Functions – vNSFs), Big Data analytics for real-time incident detection and mitigation, as well as attestation techniques for securing both the infrastructure and the services. This papers discusses key use cases and requirements for the SHIELD framework and presents a high-level architectural approach.

A system-of-systems (SoS) approach for wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) and time-division multiplexing (TDM) fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) telecommunication networks is presented. Cost evolution curves for individual systems as well for whole FTTH WDM and TDM networks are presented. The analysis can be exploited for a fast and accurate analysis of FTTH deployment costs in dense urban, urban, and suburban areas from the technoeconomic point of view, which is of paramount importance for telecom operators, equipment vendors, regulators, and policy makers. The impact of delaying the deployments or adopting different rollout strategies is also investigated and presented. The SoS emergent behavior is further revealed using exploratory modeling. The results reveal that in all cases, the WDM solution is more expensive than TDM. The total cost for suburban areas is almost six times higher than in dense urban areas and four times than urban areas.

The deployment of next generation access networks (NGAs) is investigated from technical, regulatory and investment perspectives. A brief review of the possible network architectures and deployment scenarios of NGAs is provided. Risk calculations of these NGA scenarios are performed based on a fully detailed techno-economic model. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the European Commission's Recommendation on regulated access to NGAs, aiming to tackle the regulatory trade-off between encouraging investments and promoting competition, is discussed.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to carry out a techno‐economic evaluation of the business prospects of Free Space Optical (FSO) technology as an alternative last mile solutionDesign/methodology/approachThe analysis is based on the results from the TONIC tool that takes into account parameters such as network topology, area characteristics, service demand, price evolution forecasting and calculates several economic figures‐of‐merits. Furthermore in order to analyze market and technologies uncertainties a thorough risk analysis has been performedFindingsThe results reveal that FSO technology could provide a viable alternative in cases where the existing duct availability is limited especially compared to the Fiber‐to‐the‐Home (FFTH) solutions.Originality/valueThis paper studies two alternative last mile broadband technologies FSO and FTTH

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show that fixed‐mobile convergence (FMC) has gathered much interest in the telecommunications industry lately. Integrated operators (who own both fixed and mobile networks), are keen to exploit FMC benefits in order to save costs and generate new revenues. This paper aims to analyze the effects of converged network and service environment on the business of existing telecommunication operators.Design/methodology/approachAfter an introduction to the regulatory, market, and technology related issues of convergence, the authors focus on analyzing the role of FMC technologies and services in their businesses of an integrated operator with existing fixed and mobile operations in a large Western European country.FindingsResults reveal that an integrated operator can benefit from cost savings, customer retention and prevent revenue erosion by migrating to FMC.Originality/valueThis paper examines the effects of fixed‐mobile convergence to an integrated operator.

The importance of analyzing different business models and technologies in the mobile industry has become more crucial for the investment policy of the telecom operators. This paper aims to cover some of the most interesting business alternatives in providing the new 3G and beyond services including cases where the operator already has an existing second-generation cellular network and perhaps even a license for the 3G UMTS network, and cases where the operator does not have any existing network. Three cases for incumbents and new entrants are foreseen, leaving alternatives for new competing 3G technology deployment or acting as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) without owning any radio infrastructure. A techno-economic approach has been used to identify business opportunities and quantify the potential profitability of different kind of business players. The scenarios have been analyzed in the Western European context by different country groups that are not exactly representative of any defined country, but rather share typical demographic characteristics.

Three business case scenarios in the context of emerging mobile access network technologies and business players have been studied and the economical results are presented. The aim is to cover some of the most interesting business alternatives in providing the new 3G and beyond services including cases where the operator may have an existing second-generation cellular network or not, and a license for the 3G UMTS network or not. The scenarios have been analyzed in different Western European country groups that are not exactly representative of any defined country, but rather share typical demographic characteristics. Investments and operational expenditures are identified and the results show how diverse business models and technologies lead to different revenue, cost, and profitability profiles. The business case scenarios include incumbent's 3G evolution with UMTS compared to an alternative 3G technology deployment with mobile WiMAX, new entrant's UMTS deployment business case, and a greenfield CDMA450 deployment business case.

SUMMARY This paper presents the technoeconomic aspects of network solutions based on integration of satellite and terrestrial, based on ADSL, WLAN and DVB-T technologies, architectures. Following a discussion of the general deployment context, the business case framework is described in terms of areas served, services offered, tariffs, demand assumptions, as well as network architecture and dimensioning rules. The key cost items are presented and economic estimations are provided in the case of telecom operators, which integrate satellite bandwidth with terrestrial technologies in different area types. The evaluated business cases have shown that the satellite rental cost (airtime cost) level is one of the most critical parameter for the economic indicator of present value. Therefore, agreements with satellite operators for spectrum usage will give operators space for business opportunities and acceptable profit margins. In addition, dynamic bandwidth allocation schemes can exploit the aggregated traffic within satellite transmission, which can benefit satellite, telecom and cable operators offering entertainment on broadband business as well as new entrants in broadband business, equipment vendors, broadcasters and TV companies. Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article summarizes the major results from European projects drawing final conclusions and recommendations from the technoeconomic evaluation of three telecommunications market studies. It presents an analysis addressing a wide range of crucial telecommunications questions debated today. The business cases are: seamless mobile IP service provision, 3G mobile virtual network operators (MVNO), and fixed networks for broadband IP services. Extensive market analysis has been carried out for modeling demand, penetrations, and tariff structures for new mobile services and broadband services as an input to the business cases. Results show that over a 10-year study period, UMTS business is profitable in most cases for established operators with reasonable market share. The 3G MVNO business case is profitable under typical conditions when MVNO yields about 10 percent penetration, depending on the country type. Provision of fixed broadband services with a fiber to the curb solution is viable in dense urban and urban areas, but not in suburban environments, while fiber to the home is viable only in dense urban areas, despite the selection of protocol (ATM vs. Ethernet). Furthermore, broadband wireless access (BWA) systems, in dense urban and urban areas, show quite promising economic results

This article presents a comprehensive techno-economic evaluation of two upgrade strategy cases for broadband IP services for residential and business customers, and illustrates their respective merits and pitfalls, allowing the definition of a reasonable investment policy. The work should enable establishment of guidelines for broadband infrastructure upgrade strategies from the incumbent operator's view. Following the definition of appropriate service sets, and taking into account demand scenarios established within the project, this work has been focused on developing a techno-economic model, based on the TONIC tool. Tariff structures have been applied to compute the key economic indicators, net present value, internal rate of return, and payback period. This investment analysis was carried using the tool, which was developed by IST-TONIC. The results show that the choice of technology (Ethernet or ATM) has almost no effect on the cost level and profitability of the cases. For the suburban area, a fiber to the cabinet solution is too expensive due to heavy infrastructure investments; for dense urban and urban areas the FTTC solution is worth the investments. The FTTH/office deployment scenario is only profitable in dense urban areas (>5000 potential customers/km/sup 2/) and already highly risky in the urban area.

This article outlines the economic feasibility of mobile operators that combine nationwide mobility with 3G networks and hot spot coverage withWLANS, WLANS are based onHIPERLAN/2 architecture and theUMTS network exploitswCDMA/FDD technology. The evaluated business scenarios are focused on two different deployment areas, in terms of demographic characteristics and mobile penetration: a large and a small European country. The business case spans 2002 to 2011 withUMTS’ roll-out year in 2002 andWLAN’s in 2004, covering indoor hot-spot areas (stations, airports, stadiums, etc.) where demand is high. The demand for thisUMTS-WLAN roaming case is evaluated based on observations from Europe’s current mobile market and its evolution. Usage scenarios of different service packages corresponding to both residential and business markets have been taken into account. Direct investments and operational costs as well as revenue streams from traffic have been calculated. The methodology and the tool developed inACTS-TERA [1] andIST-TONIC [2] projects have been utilized for this case study. Economic conclusions have been derived, presented and discussed using key profitability factors. Profitability for all scenarios and business profiles has been calculated, presented and discussed. It includes a sensitivity analysis in order to identify the major opportunities and threats, for specific service sets as well as critical parameters and uncertainties. A wide audience from mobile operators and service providers to retail companies interested in entering the 3G market, can exploit this information.

Novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) have been developed as alternatives for vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) for the prevention of thromboembolic events in patients with a variety of medical conditions. In this review, we summarize the current data on NOACs safety and efficacy compared to VKAs and in specific patients’ groups including heart valve replacement, venous thromboembolism, advanced renal failure and the elderly.

Digital home business is a large potential market for which ACEMIND European collaborative project intends to provide a set of consistent solutions to enhance the local network management in home and small enterprises. These networks are typically constituted by some tens of devices connected to each other via a set of wired and wireless technologies. The deployment of such networks has been intensive in Europe in the last decade and will continue in the future. However common end-users still suffer from complicated installation, operation or maintenance. Recent progress has been made to integrate heterogeneous connectivity into a single network. A proof of concept has been shown thanks to European collaborative project OMEGA and the hybrid network demonstrator has led to an IEEE standard and available commercial products. The goal of ACEMIND project is to enrich this initial concept with new features and services such as energy efficiency, packets load balancing or anomaly detection. Another target is to integrate future products using new transmission technologies. Then, using a unique user-friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface), it will be possible to monitor and manage the home network with a large range of services such as energy optimization, UHD TV or wellness.

This article presents a techno-economic evaluation of 3G rollout scenarios in two "typical" European countries with contrasting profiles, analyzing both the incumbent and newcomer business cases. The analysis is based on a techno-economic methodology developed within the ACTS-TERA project. Market and tariff forecasts as well as the technological evolutionary paths are discussed and financial figures are analyzed. Sensitivity analysis follows these basic results in order to identify the impact of uncertainties and risks. The success of such an investment project mainly depends on the regulatory framework, demand and tariff structure, and the market share.

In Europe initiatives towards the development of optical networks infrastructures’ have undertaken in order to address the need of faster and more telecommunications services. Consequently, the implementation of appropriate business model seems to be meaningful tool for infrastructures as it could ensure commercial viability and limit investment’s risks. Although, the variety of forms characterizes a business model, there are some aspects that networks owners or decision makers should consider in each case. The purpose of this book chapter is to highlight the main issues that should be considered from the main actors involved in the business models like telecom operators, fiber optical constructors as well as municipalities that own the main part of the infrastructure.

The media richness of the services available to the end consumer has had a constant increase rate over the last century. This leads nowadays to the need of Ultra Broadband at home to handle future services such as 3D video that may reach the Gigabit per second. Moreover, beyond the bandwidth increase, the home network capabilities have to evolve in order to support new usages and to guarantee Quality of Service. This paper describes state of the art issues and typical requirements for the future home network and presents a solution fulfilling these requirements, based on an inter-MAC convergence layer. This solution is developed in the OMEGA FP7 project. It then provides initial results of a techno-economic analysis that studies the case of a hypothetical OMEGA Service Operator (OSO).

Broadband communication networks have begun to spread rapidly over fixed networks, with wireless networks following at close distance. The excess capacity allows the offering of broadband services at competitive rates. Location-based services (LBS) over wireless broadband networks are becoming mainstream in an emerging ambient intelligence society. For LBS over broadband and, in particular, pier-to-pier networks, such as ad hoc networks, unambiguous user authentication is of paramount importance to user trust and safety, thus ultimately to the success of such service. Biometric authentication is an approach to providing irrefutable identity verification of a user, thus providing the highest level of security. This chapter addresses some of the issues associated with the use of biometric ID for user and apparatus authentication over broadband wireless networks (e.g., GPRS, UMTS, WiFi, LANs) and narrow band local networks (e.g., bluetooth, Zigbee, PANs, BANs).

Digital convergence brings new players in the telecom market and the Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) are an alternative way for companies to enter the 3G telecom market and start offering services. This chapter aims to contribute to the assessment of the market conditions, architectures and potential for profitable business cases of MVNOs aiming to operate in the mature and competitive markets. The results and conclusions provide guidelines for the wide audience of mobile market players and media companies, spanning telecom operators to regulators and academia. In the following, the necessary background information is presented, quantitative figures such as Net Present Value, pay-back period, investment cost, revenues and running cost for different MVNO business cases are estimated and compared. The MVNO’s impacts on a MNO operator and the effects of MVNO collaboration with a WLAN operator are analyzed with the same method and figures.

In this paper, a techno-economic evaluation of the business prospects of Free Space Optical (KSO) technology as an alternative last mile solution is carried out and compared to Fiber-to-the-Home/Office (FTTH) and Fiber-to-the-Cabinet (FFTC). The analysis is based on the results from the TONIC tool which takes into account network topology, area characteristics, service demand and price evolution forecasting and calculates key economic figures-of-merits. The results reveal that FSO technology could provide a viable alternative in cases where the existing duct availability is limited and scenarios with either FTTH or FFTC have negative or less favourable business prospects.

This paper discusses the influence of the maturity of the photonic component industry (PCI) in the business prospects of optical access network deployments. Using the TONIC techno-economic tool, the business prospects of such deployments (in terms of traditional investment indexes such as the Net Present Value - NPV or Internal Rate of Return - IRR) are related to the several factors which characterize the maturity of the PCI such as production volumes and component cost evolution. The analysis shows that even if the cost of Fiber-to-the-Home/Office (FTTH/O) and Fiber-to-the-Curb scenarios are mainly influenced by fiber installation costs, the price reduction rate of photonic components may also affect the investment strategies. To speed up the cost reductions, telecom carriers should therefore invest on optical technology research and development.

In this paper, a techno-economic evaluation of the business prospects of a wide scale deployment of Free Space Optical (FSO) technology as a last mile solution is carried out. The evaluation is based on the TONIC tool which takes into account network topology, area characteristics, service demand and price evolution forecasting and calculates key economic figures-of-merits. It is shown that FSO technology could provide a viable alternative in situations where the duct availability is limited and Fiber-to-the-Home/Office or Fiber- to-the-Cabinet scenarios have negative or less favorable business prospects.

The last years as the traffic and revenues are moving from old PSTN networks and services to new broadband and mobile all IP networks telecom operators are facing major challenges. In order to reduce their losses telecom operators see the fixed mobile convergence (FMC) as the phenomenon capable of shaking the telecom market. In FMC case telecom services are provided to the customer independent of the access technique. Convergence will appear at different levels such as user terminal, backbone network technology, tariffs and even at business or commercial levels. In this paper the integrated operator case, one with both mobile and fixed network, is investigated through a tecno-economic point of view. The study is focused on a convergent architecture based on IMS. In order to draw conclusions market forecasts, OPEX and CAPEX estimations and revenue forecasts are combined.

The globally observed recession of mobile services market has pushed mobile network operators into looking for opportunities to provide value added services on top of their high cost infrastructures. Recent advances in mobile positioning technologies enable services that make use of the mobile user location information, offering intuitive, attractive applications to the potential customer. Mobile tourism services are among the primary options to be considered by service providers for this new market. This chapter presents the key concepts, capabilities, and considerations of infrastructures and applications targeted to the mobile tourist, covering data and content delivery, positioning, systems’ interactions, platforms, protocols, security, and privacy as well as business modelling aspects.

This paper describes the main results of a project which had as the goal modelling traffic produced by implementations of certain broadband services. Several sources are modelled and for some effective bandwidth is calculated. First experiences of dimensioning of VPCs by effective bandwidth using simulations were conducted and proved successful.

The authors present the techno-economic evaluation of multimedia mobile (IMT 2000) roll-out in two sample European countries with contrasting profiles: a large country with moderate mobile penetration and a "fast-track" smaller country with much higher mobile penetration. Results show a higher net present value in the larger country, but the internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period (8 years) are similar for both profiles. Sensitivity analysis shows that, with 25% market share, the operator roughly breaks even. When market share increases to 35%, the IRR practically doubles. These cases show that the number of competitors has a significant impact, and that solutions such as roaming agreements may be sought to reduce initial investments.

Purpose: Ventricular assist device (VAD) use is becoming increasingly common for patients with end-stage heart failure (HF). The majority of events seem to occur in the early post-operative period.We sought to confirm the efficacy of ICDs in a single center cohort of VAD-supported HF patients. Methods: All adult subjects who underwent VAD support since 2003 as a bridge to transplantation (BTT) were reviewed and included in the study.All subjects in the cohort received one of the following VAD systems: HeartMate XVE,Novacor LVAS,LVAD INCOR Berlin Heart,HeartWare LVAS and Berlin Heart (LVAD and BiVAD).All patients had the ICD turned off for VAD implantation, and only LVAD recipients had the ICD turned on post-operatively (routinely within 12 – 48hours).BIVAD recipients had the ICD set to monitor only. Appropriate ICD shocks for Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) and Ventricular Fibrillation (VF) were recorded.The primary outcome was survival to transplantation. Results: A total of 87 VADs were implanted for the indication of bridge to transplantation.Of these,34 were left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) and 53 were biventricular assist devices (BIVAD).57 patients had an ICD (23 LVAD, 34 BIVAD).Mean age 40±12 years,78% male,LVEF 18±9%,54% dilated.Mean length of support was 365 days (range 1–1280). Overall, 48 (56%) patients survived to transplantation.More patients with an ICD were treated with amiodarone reflecting a higher incidence of arrhythmias.Of the 23 LVAD patients with an ICD,10 received at least one ICD shock.Appropriate shocks were delivered to 7 patients after LVAD implantation (5 VT, 1 VF, 1VT and VF). The mean time to first shock after LVAD implant was 129±109 days.In the LVAD cohort, more patients had an appropriate ICD shock for VT or VF before LVAD implant than afterwards.Of great interest was the analysis of the arrhythmias detected in the BiVAD group (15 patients out of 53 had at least one event VT or VF and one of them suffered an electrical storm).In BiVAD patients detection of those arrhythmias were of great importance because a decrease in cardiac outpout was observed. Arrhythmias detected in both groups were of prognostic significance,especially in the LVAD Group (RV failure and aortic regurgitation) In addition, two patients without an ICD had ventricular arrhythmias requiring placement of an ICD after VAD placement. Conclusion: ICD shocks are common after implantation of VADs.Shock frequency decreases after VAD implantation, likely due to ventricular unloading, but appropriate ICD shocks still occur in VAD supported patients.

Passive optical networks (PONs) are being widely considered as a means to implement fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and deliver broadband access to business and home users. However, technical and consequently regulatory and economic complexities arise in light of their deployment. In this paper, an evaluation of the business prospects of time division multiplexed (TDM) and wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) PON architectures for FTTH deployments under different rollout conditions is performed, based on the ECOSYS techno-economic methodology and tool. The importance of various cost components (fiber installation, optoelectronic components, etc.) is discussed. Using sensitivity analysis, the effect of various parameters such as duct availability, cost of civil works, etc. on the prospects of the investment are investigated. These results reveal several important techno-economic aspects that should be considered by telecom operators, regulators, and policy makers towards a successful FTTH deployment strategy.

Due to the increasing demand in data rates telecom operators are faced with the question of when to upgrade their access network infrastructure toward fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). In this paper a techno-economic study of fiber-to-the-cabinet/very high bit rate digital subscriber line (FTTC/VDSL) and FTTH deployments is performed. The economics and risks associated with the incumbent's decision to invest in dense urban and urban areas are analyzed using both discount cash flow (DCF) analysis and real options analysis (ROA). The results revealed that in the case of investment subsidization, the option value to expand in a later phase can significantly improve the financial metrics of the business cases. The analysis made is based on the ECOSYS techno-economic methodology and tool.

A technoeconomic evaluation of the business prospects of a wide-scale deployment of free space optical (FSO) technology as a last-mile solution is carried out. The evaluation is based on a technoeconomic tool that taking into account network topology, area characteristics, service demand, and price evolution forecasts, estimates key economic figures-of-merit. It is shown that FSO technology could provide a viable alternative in situations where the duct availability is limited, and fiber-to-the-home/office or fiber-to-the-cabinet scenarios have negative or less favorable business prospects. Hybrid fiber/FSO scenarios are also investigated taking into account different FSO coverage conditions.

A techno-economic evaluation of the business aspects of optical networks in the access/metro optical networks is given and its relation to the evolution of the photonic component industry is highlighted.