The rapid developments in internet and wireless technologies during the past few years have opened up new possibilities for remote access in the financial markets. The new generation of mobile handheld devices and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are a far cry from earlier and much cruder remote access devices, such as the Reuters pager.

Not only are the devices themselves improving, but so are the networks through which they will communicate. The third generation (3G) mobile networks, which attracted such frenzied licence bidding in the UK and Germany, will deliver far greater bandwidth, enabling not only voice but also video and larger amounts of data to be delivered.