What is convergence?

P

psst

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2008
Messages
122
Reaction score
0
Location
Pretoria
I know this is probably a stupid question, but what exactly is 'convergence"?
 
Very simply and basically- traditionally services have been easy to distinguish between, for example, "telecommunications" (telkom line) and "broadcasting" (radio, television). "Convergence" is an evolution of technology where the distinction between these services as well as the communication equipment used to access these services is blurred. Instead of "telecommunications" and "broadcasting", we now refer to "electronic communications". (For eg, think about radio over the internet, or television received via cellphones).
 
I usually define it as "one infrastructure that is able to deliver multiple services that were historically separate."
 
There are two views on the topic:

1. That people NEED convergence, especially in this busy day in age, as it will be a lot easier to communicate/connect through ONE medium to ALL media, plus it will save you time and hassle as you only pay one bill. One product is good - but a combination of products are great.

2. But there is another school of thinking that suggests users today are very picky when it comes to their ways of communicating - they see certain technologies as more intimate as other and DO NOT WANT them to converge.

http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/0807/the...-mobile-convergence,-user-need-divergence.htm

BUT... the South African atmosphere is quite unique and there is no way of telling if convergence will be successful or not...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X