Whither speech? Convergence and the future of telephony

The authors explain why the commercial and technical forces of convergence are likely to overturn many design concepts in telecommunications concepts that were very successful for so long. For example, the traditional design viewpoint is network-centric and focuses on the transmission. and switching of bits. Yet bits are not, and never were, the stuff of the traditional product. Designing new services with such an outlook could be commercially perilous in an era of rapid convergence and keen competition.