Telecom Asia writes:

Telecoms players see the emergence of converged, ubiquitous multiple access services as the key to future profitability, but getting there will take a mix of improved customer focus and good old-fashioned serendipity.

“Telcos are too focused on transmission – the answer to their prayers will be new business models that create value,” said Chang Bun Yoon, president and CEO of Hanaro Telecom during a Telecom Asia session on turning market demand into profit.

“The key to this will be convergence – voice, data, TV, wired and wireless broadband, all supported by all-IP backbones,” Yoon said. “Users will be able to communicate any time, anywhere with any device, from business-critical applications to entertainment.”

Keiji Tachikawa, a director and former president of NTT DoCoMo, sees a similar future trend, describing it as “a paradigm shift to an infrastructure that is indispensable to people in their daily activity.”

The shift is happening on three levels, he said: multimedia, ubiquitous use (not coverage, but things like using mobiles as a payment device), and globalization in which users can have access to the same service no matter where they are in the world.

The notion of convergence – in particular triple-play services accessible from multiple access methods from DSL and 3G to 802.16 – has been around the industry for years, but the roadmap to achieving it is less clear.