Post Financial Trauma - How is the Telecom Value Chain Now Positioned?

After two years of financial trauma unprecedented in living memory, the world is settling into a period known variously as "The New Normal" or "The Muddle-Through Economy." Consumer expectations are being recalibrated, past excesses gradually expunged, and future priorities re-evaluated. As a result, the very definition of value itself may be undergoing a significant re-write. Having passed through its own nuclear winter in the 2001 - 2004 period to emerge leaner and financially stronger, how is the telecom value chain positioned to adapt to the new paradigm, if at all? Are the investments being made by stakeholders today the right ones, or, as history suggests, are the real opportunities the non-obvious ones?