2004 is already shaping up to be the year that “converged networking” (CN) – the merging of voice, data and video communications into one seamless system – truly came of age. Although the concept is not particularly new, it can now be said, with confidence, that the technical problems surrounding CN have finally been solved for the serious enterprise user and casual consumer alike. Most significantly though, both the capital and operating costs of convergence have declined substantially while, in the process, even the corporate telecom behemoths, whose profits were largely dependent on a segregated voice and data market, have come around to accept, market and even welcome the inevitability of CN. Former incumbent telephone monopolies like Verizon and AT&T in the US, among others internationally, have recently rolled out an array of new services that turn the trend into an even more viable alternative for small and medium sized
