Service and technology trends in the next decade

Summary form only given. In recent years, the telecommunications industry has converged on the key role of the Internet protocol (IP), for the definition of the infrastructure for new multimedia and advanced communications applications. As the demand for packet-based data traffic grows exponentially, it will overtake traditional circuit-switched voice on the communications networks throughout the world and eventually become the predominant way of providing telecommunications by the next decade. Market analysts predict the voice/data traffic crossover to occur in the next few years, driven in particular by exploding demand for IP-based applications, both on the public Internet and on private intranets and extranets.