SIMPLY PUT, TODAY’S communication universeis divided into two worlds. The big one is whereyou send e-mail, stream music, watch moviesand upload cat videos to Facebook. It’s largescale,commercial, cost-efficient and reasonablytolerant of lags and downtime.The small world, on the other hand, is theone that keeps you alive. It’s public service,obsessed with safety, security and integrity,and relentlessly reliable. It’s the system thatkeeps communication lines open in disasterzones, operates machinery in toxic environmentsand will allow doctors to perform remotesurgery.Due to the free-market emphasis on costeffectiveness,these two worlds are not likely tomerge in the future. If anything, the dividebetween them will become more pronounced.But while the big world has a well-defined businessmodel up and running, the small one hassome critical challenges to face in the comingyears. How it manages those challenges is thefocus of this paper.