Vendors should stop pushing IP telephony and Wi-Fi technology in isolation and put forward converged communication strategies instead.

Analyst Butler Group reckons suppliers are letting end users down by failing to help them migrate to converged communications and allowing an ad hoc approach to technology deployment to become commonplace.

"Vendors must abandon their current approach of adopting technologies such as VoIP and Wi-Fi in isolation. While such technologies can bring short-term benefit, they are not in harmony with the real business challenges facing enterprises today and totally ignore the advantages of merging voice and data networks," Butler opines.

Businesses will adopt one network for voice and data as previous hurdles such as security, immature standards and cost have disappeared, according to Butler.

"It will take five years before converged communications is commonplace but vendors risk losing their ability to compete if they focus on short-term cost saving implementations," it adds.

Butler predicts that major players in the communication and network industry that offer the prospect of end-to-end converged solutions, seamlessly roaming from one transport technology to another, will be the most successful in the medium to long term. Currently, BT and Cisco lead the market for convergence but over the next few years Alcatel and Siemens will join them, the analyst house forecasts. ®

Related Products
Check out Wi-Fi products in The Reg mobile store