Text A. Responding to Convergence

By: Mike Rock

Convergence is creating new businesses and forcing existing businesses to adapt quickly or die. We are seeing the convergence of telecommunications, IT & Media; the convergence of fixed & mobile services and convergence at device level. All of these trends are creating new markets and making other equipment, products, services and even whole companies rapidly obsolete. For technology manufacturers or service providers, deciding which markets to base your future on becomes a challenge with serious consequences. Should ВТ or AT&T provide home TV services to replace their declining telephony revenues? Should Kodak integrate a mobile phone into its cameras or just give up?

Does Microsoft still need to sell boxed software when you can download applications onto a smart phone? Does everyone have to have a mobile offering or have no future? When the communication of voice is just another software application what do equipment manufacturers like Nortel or Alcatel-Lucent do? Google just does search, right? Collisions within the telecoms, IT and media sectors are occurring now on a daily basis. Like any busy crossroads, there are going to be near misses and head on crashes. As ever, the survivors will be the companies that understand their customers, and are agile enough to quickly respond to all this change.

Vocabulary notes:

BT - BT Group (ранее British Telecommunications plc или British Telecom) — британская телекоммуникационная компания.

AT&T Inc. (stylized as at&t) is an American multinational telecommunications corporation, the second largest provider of mobile telephony and the largest provider of fixed telephony in the United States

Convergence - Telecommunications convergence, network convergence or simply convergence are broad terms used to describe emerging telecommunications technologies, and network architecture used to migrate multiple communications services into a single network.^[1] Specifically this involves the converging of previously distinct media such as telephony and data communications into common interfaces on single devices.

Obsolete - No longer produced or used; out of date: the disposal of old and obsolete machinery.

Nortel Networks Corporation, formerly known as Northern Telecom Limited and sometimes known simply as Nortel, was a multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, bankrupt now.

Alcatel-Lucent is a French global telecommunications equipment company. The company focuses on fixed, mobile, and converged networking hardware, IP technologies, software, and services. Has been operating in Kazakhstan since 1991.

5.2 Based on the text, suggest English equivalents for the following words and expressions:

оборудование, службы и даже компании быстро становятся устаревшими; предоставлять услуги домашнего телевидения; уменьшение доходов; упакованный программный продукт; оживленный перекресток.

5.3 Write a comment in response to this blog post.

Tech tutorial:

3G G.4G = New generations of mobile phone standards, allowing mobile network operators to offer advanced services.

Ethernet = A very high bandwidth data networking technology used by companies in LANs and increasingly WANs.

GSM = Global System for mobile communications. A worldwide standard for mobile phones making phones from one operator compatible with a different operator in another country.

MPLS = Multi-Protocol Label Switching. A data networking protocol and service that can carry different kinds of traffic-voice, data, video etc.

Open source = Software that is made available to developers and users, licensed to encourage re-use without charge.

SaaS = Software as a Service.

Wi-Fi =A technology providing wireless transmission of data over a short range (for example, in a house or office)

Wi- Max = A technology providing wireless transmission of high speed data over a large area (for example, a city).

5.4 Read the magazine article about trends in Telecoms and IT. Match the industry Leader to their area of expertise.

1) Peter Wilson a) software

2) Jenny Lane b) telecoms

3) Sanjay Ravi c) hardware

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