As new industry boundaries emerge, products no longer belong to a specific industry or IT platform alone. In short, convergence is a merger of technologies, with increased service delivery and quality as key outcomes.

As Jeff Jack, manager: technology and operations at Dimension Data, puts it, Convergence is a seamless transition from analogue to digital form, with the crux lying in flexibility and adding value.

According to Botlenyana Mokhele, manager: broadcasting policy development and research at Icasa, the current trends in the international market with regard to convergence are centred around network level technology convergence having architectures established that support new generation networks based on Internet Protocol (IP), bundled convergence grouping separate services into a single retail bundle, and gateway convergence to allow greater access to these services.

Service convergence is another focus area, coupled with substitutable service convergence, creating a side substitution between services such as replacing fixed telephony services with mobile telephony;

The development and application of new technologies to invent completely new services capable of being accessed by any technology, such as PDAs, cellphones and other mobile devices through satellite or Wi-Fi, as well as the issue of the regulatory environment around convergence are further issues being debated.

These trends are also being observed within SA, says Mokhele, but to a lesser degree.