The project results will form the basis for a new market around the PN. With a strong European industry, research institute and academic presence in MAGNET, this new market will result in:

• Additional employment in research and strategic planning units of telecommunications and information technology sector companies, and via the creation of new start-ups and spin-out companies
• Additional revenues in equipment manufacturing and software
• Additional revenues in service provisioning of basic, as well as, value added services provided by operators and providers of wireless and wired access and Internet services
• Additional actors for the PN service provision such as third parties and even the users themselves, thus fostering services and generating additional jobs in service and content creation

MAGNET, with the presence of actors from around the globe, will also extend the employment opportunities for Europeans and enable European industry to extend its presence and operate in a global strategic framework.

Potential benefits to the environment and natural resources offered by MAGNET include:

• Ubiquitous information interaction facilitated by MAGNET, which will assist an improved environmental monitoring and control. The added benefit of a PN lies in the ability to adapt its constituents to dynamically changing situations
• Efficient use of the limited radio spectrum via the introduction of advanced spectrum-efficient, flexible and adaptive air interfaces supported by efficient radio resource management
• Introduce novel mobile communication topologies and technologies. PN technologies will help the telecommunications industry reposition itself and adapt rapidly and flexibly to changes in regulation.

The issues of security and privacy have often been restricted to the upper service layers, in the form of application and transport security, and to lower layers, in the form of security over the air. In the context of MAGNET, the security and privacy issues will be solved in tight interaction with all the other technological development at all layers. Providing continuous, on-demand, end-to-end security in personal networks requires research by many different participants in the field of telecommunications. In order to provide multi-vendor interoperability, standards bodies need to be kept informed and interested.

The purpose of MAGNET Beyond is to provide a competitive technological edge for Europe in this critical area, aiming to fulfil the European citizens’ expectations for a global platform for PN systems, ensuring scalable, decentralised and cost-effective communications. Having both operators and manufacturers in the consortium ensures that research ideas can be quickly implemented. The industrial and academic partners will contribute to the specification of the requirements of the envisioned services in order to provide a reliable system that will incorporate features already demanded by the European citizens. The manufacturers and providers will evaluate the exploitability of the project’s results.

The commercial future of the EU is strongly dependent on the growth of information technology and associated markets. To this end, it is essential that Europe is located at the forefront of the developments in mobile networks and support the provision of user-friendly services and operations. The project vision and expected contributions will improve the quality of life of the European citizens and enhance considerably the ability of workers to cooperate, increase their competitiveness and their productivity.