...lets users send and read e-mails, surf the Internet, watch videos and listen to music--and, oh yeah, to make and receive calls. Research in Motion's BlackBerry, released in 1999, was the forerunner of the iPhone and one of the first wireless e-mailing devices.

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For telephone companies, telecommunications convergence goes beyond the realm of nifty devices and represents a fundamental shift in how the business is run. It involves everything from the network itself--with everything shifting to the IP platform--to the necessity of forming partnerships, customer relationships and the mindset of telco employees.

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Steven Shepard, author of "How to Profit From the Convergence of Technologies, Services and Companies" and president of Shepard Communications Group in Williston, Vt., explained that telecommunications convergence was originally little more than a fledgling technology and catch-phrase tossed around in the late 1990s. "Then the Internet bubble burst, but convergence has emerged from the ashes, and this time it's real," he said.

Different From Triple Play

Shepard also stressed that telecommunications convergence is not the newest buzzword for triple play. "Triple play is all about the service provider, but real convergence is all about the customer," he said. "In triple play or quadruple play, the idea is to provide multiple services in bundles to make it difficult for customers to extricate themselves if they're not happy with one portion of service--it's almost a coercive, negative thing. But convergence is about the service provider's ability to deliver any service to any customer anywhere in the world on any network using any access device and any access technology. This is about the network adapting to the customer's requirements, and that creates a very compelling service. It allows them to get their e-mail, telephone service, TV on any device anywhere. It's creating an environment where the customer, not the technology, is central."

To make this happen, Shepard said it's imperative that telcos transition their networks to IP. "Those using an IMS [IP multimedia subsystem] will be...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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