In short, there are still opportunities in telecoms but not where they were during the boom. The experience of the past couple of years, says Dave Dorman, chief executive of AT&T has demonstrated that there is more to being a telecoms operator than simply owning a shiny new network. The best prospects are at the network's edges, not at its core, and revolve around providing complex services, not merely dumb capacity. The watchword now is transformation not construction. Only by embracing this new reality will the industry find a way out of its troubles