The Internet is unprecedented in its impact on the world community of industries, institutions, and individuals. In some way, the Internet has touched most of our lives in terms of how we communicate, how we promote our products, how we teach our children, and how we invest our time. No media adoption curve has been faster than the Internet’s. In the United States alone, it took almost 40 years for 50 million people to use radio and 15 years for 50 million people to use TV and cellular communications. Internet users reached the 50-million mark in just 5 years.

During that time, the world became increasingly mobile, defined by the take-it-with-you philosophy we have developed regarding information and our access to it. For the wireless cellular industry, that shift in attitude has created the opportunity to add mobility to Internet accessibility—effectively allowing subscribers to carry the power of the Internet with them anywhere at any time (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Internet Wave Chart

The convergence of wireless and Internet usage is already underway. Globally, Internet users as a whole are projected to increase from about 200 million at present to almost 1 billion by the year 2005. During the same period of time, global wireless subscribers are expected to increase from 300 million to over a billion.

With these market dynamics in mind, several industry-leading businesses have agreed that next-generation wireless networks will leverage the packet-based technology of IP. This strategy provides operators with the unique opportunity to deliver a multitude of new services to mobile cellular subscribers in a manner more customizable than previously possible (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Projected Wireless Internet Convergence

As the industry continues to invest heavily in advancing IP technology for supporting real-time applications such as voice with reliable service and toll quality, it is expected to further accelerate the introduction of new network capabilities that are defined within IP standards for network implementations.