VoIP is being positioned in all conceivable network configurations and market segments. New IP–based applications will emerge in the next two years that will incorporate video, voice, and data simultaneously for practical business and entertainment purposes. Many of the existing applications are free, which always helps to stimulate a market. A related and underestimated application is document sharing which, when used in conjunction with VoIP, has the potential to improve productivity dramatically.

There are two important trends to note in the voice-data consolidation market. Smaller and medium-sized businesses will play an important role in the development of the WAN access consolidation market and the voice-data consolidation market in general. Second, the layering of value-added applications on top of multiservice access lines will be important to the success of this market, taking voice-data consolidation well beyond the simple model of “voice rides for free” over an existing data network. This represents a new phase in the evolution of the voice-data consolidation market that will be the first step toward the unified networks of the future.

The Sprint ION and AT&T INC models are fundamentally sound conceptually. In both cases, the service provider accepts the risk of technological obsolescence and offers services to assist with the implementation and ongoing management of the offerings. This is a step toward fulfilling the promise of the “WAN as a utility” model. Users will view their networks as a utility into which they plug for services, and they may therefore focus on their primary responsibility: running their businesses. This is a new concept for end users, and it will take time for the market to embrace this new concept. Once a threshold is reached, however, it will begin to grow exponentially.