The market is seeing an accelerated shift from early adopters to widespread adoption of convergent telecom and information technology (IT) networks globally: Convergence at the corporate level is becoming a reality. As Dr. Jack Murphy, HP Fellow Emeritus, said: “On the voice side, we are seeing a movement toward voice over IP, which takes data network technology and applies it to the voice networks. So voice begins to use data network technologies and infrastructure that was developed over the years. At the same time, we also see data networks moving in the direction of voice networks.”
Take It With You
For CSPs, convergence focuses primarily on services and mobility. Ubiquitous technology is transforming physical communications into Internet-based virtual interactions, and the game-based Second Life is now spreading to the corporate world. In the coming years, these trends will accelerate due to the emergence of new models, new capabilities and rapid innovation at the edge of convergence.
In this paper, we examined convergence largely from the consumer perspective. Consumers are adopting convergence in terms of hardware, software and services, and this evolution spans the personal and the business environments. Convergence promises savings of time and effort, while delivering intrinsic value to tomorrow’s demanding, on-the-go consumer.
To deliver on these promises, CSPs must focus on service, service and service. Unless CSPs respond quickly to consumer demand with services offered at competitive price points, customers might quickly seek alternative providers that live up to the promises of convergence.