Intelligent communication in the Netherlands: Accommodation of large-scale, mass-market 4G applications

This paper describes the recent history of the communication technology innovations in the Netherlands, it describes the establishments and spearheads of the research community in the Freeband program (www.freeband.nl) and expresses the lines and ambitions for future developments and research. Distinguishing feature of Freeband is the collaborative development between industry and academia leading to clear focus and excellence in applications, context awareness and high-speed technologies. We argue that joint R&D programs with public private cooperation can work if they build on a shared vision. As such they can lead to centers of excellence international positioning and a strong knowledge base. We also argue that a focus shift is at hand from defining only research in technological areas to defining research for problems that arise in practical deployments and up scaling from lab environments.