Talk about convergence is hardly new, and while the lofty concept has already become a practical reality, according to Tim Walter, Nashua Mobile’s executive head of marketing, the convergence revolution is at its very beginnings.

More pertinently, he believes it heralds some exciting new developments in the years ahead.

Walter began by pointing out that the lines between once-disparate services such as voice and data have blurred, while the boundaries between traditional IT and telecommunications are disappearing.

Increasingly, users are expecting  seamless access to a range of data and applications using any number of devices, such as notebooks, tablets, desktops and smartphones, using whatever means of access is most accessible and affordable at a specific place or time, whether it is 3G or ADSL.

While this is very much part and parcel of the current technological landscape, Walter asserted that there are a few converged technologies that we can expect to see more of within the next 24 months.

Traffic, controlled

The first of these is 3G to Wi-Fi offloading, in which 3G traffic will be ‘handed off’ to Wi-Fi campus area networks, as users look for ways to save money on their data bills,  and operators aim to optimise traffic on their cellular networks.Walter added that, with congestion on 3G networks in urban centres growing as data prices fall, many users are having a poor user experience with cellular connectivity.

“With the necessary technology rapidly maturing, the time is becoming ripe for the operators to offer 3G to Wi-Fi offload as an option to their subscribers. The complications of billing for services are being ironed out and we can expect to see hotspot operators and cellular networks coming up with some interesting business models of Wi-Fi offloading in the months to come,” he asserted.

TV on demand - finally

The second trend Walter highlights comes as little surprise, namely TV and video on demand. Despite the fact that South Africans have so far “been starved of video-on-demand options such as Netflix and Hulu”, Walter believes that this should change soon.

He pointed out that already, we are seeing televisions with Internet connectivity shipping in South Africa, and asserts that it is only a matter of time before we start to see services to go with them.

“Broadband costs need to fall a little and infrastructure needs to be upgraded to make TV-on-demand and video-on-demand a reality, but there are some positive changes underway,” he enthused.

Cross-industry payments

The third converged application that Walter believes is worth watching out for is cross-industry payments. In his view, telecommunications service providers are in an ideal position to serve as billing agents.

He elaborates that they can offer a converged bill for services like electricity payments, toll fees, train tickets, music and more, allowing a user to get just one bill from one provider for a range of services. “This will turn the mobile phone into the payment channel of choice for many consumers and the companies they deal with every day,” he added.

To the point

Despite the fact that convergence has been spoken about for the past fifteen years, Walter believes that the technology only recently started to reach maturity.