Indications are that 2008 will be the year that the wireless open Internet takes to the air. It promises to change the culture as much as the wired Internet has, providing that certain requirements are met, open access being the most important. This has long been vigorously resisted by the telecom operators, which cherish their proprietary networks over which they exercise full control. However, opening up their networks need not be seen as a threat to the telecoms, since it can be expected to trigger exponential increases in total demand. The possible applications cannot even be imagined now. On the existing wired Internet, about 80 percent of the content people want is not prepackaged. It could not be distributed effectively or even imagined without the flexibility of connections provided by the open Internet. The growth of the wireless Internet will also be enormously influenced by developments in consumer electronics, where firms are seeking the new generation of devices people will feel they cannot leave home without. The most basic such device, the handset, is still spreading at an enormous rate; it is estimated that there will be three billion subscribers worldwide by 2010. Telecoms will have to radically change their business models, however, in order to accommodate the wireless open Internet, but only the flexibility of an open network will allow tomorrow's killer apps to emerge.