The past 18 months are best forgotten for most telecommunications operators. As the new year draws nearer they must shrug off the recent past, with its dismal forecasts for corporate earnings, rising pessimism in the markets, and flight to liquidity by many businesses. The industry has to retake its position as the engine for global growth.
Along the way, they will find the road map has changed. New competitors, new offerings, new demands, everything is driven by a new voice - convergence. To win, they must act faster and be more flexible than competitors.
It will be a painful process. We are only at the beginning. As the rate of change gathers momentum, the leaders will find there is a long way to go and a short time to get there.
The combined impact of content, consumer behaviour, environment and technology has created a new 'broadband society' among the high-technology, telecoms and media industries - that is what we call convergence.
Convergence refers to the interaction of technology, media and communications to provide rich, multimedia products and services. The emerging semiconductor, optical, storage and software technologies have reduced cost and increased performance and capacity. Advances in optical technology have also created virtually limitless cheap bandwidth.
As Level 3 chief executive Jim Crowe has said: 'Optical technology is doubling in price performance perhaps every nine months and IP technology every 18 months.'