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Convergence or
divergence? It is a known fact that, presently, we are existing in an era of global communications revolution. The growth of the Internet has paved the way for the emergence of a global village. The term, convergence, has gained prominence due to the ever increasing needs of the consumer to have one box, one network and one service provider for voice, video and data transmission. There has already been transition from 3G to 4G convergences. In its broader sense, convergence means "tending to terminate at a common point." This can be highway traffic, a mathematical series or even evolution of different species. In communications, the term is used to refer to things that are nowhere near the actual meaning of the word. The relevance of the term, convergence, here needs further probing. The word convergence has been promoted by large communication companies to expand their market share. It refers to the reliable delivery of voice, video and data to homes by one carrier and efficient phone service on a data network. Professionals advocating this type of convergence have failed to cite examples of successful businesses based on it. Despite the convergence slogan, the telephone business is still very different from data processing, and the television business has very little in common to either. In spite of successful IP telephony, the Internet and the telephone network are far from merging and are fighting a war to death conflict. The customer, who actually
uses network services and pays bills has a different viewpoint and the
dominant trend in communications for him is divergence and not
convergence. Voice calls, television, data communication and e-mail are
independent business domains. For voice calls, PSTN, cellphones and the |
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