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This article informs that six years after the emergence of the IEEE 802.11b/a standard, wireless and wired carriers and operators alike are moving en masse toward converged services over cellular and Wi-Fi networks. A few prescient carriers, such as Telia-Sonera in Norway, dove head-first into Wi-Fi technology early on and today lead the pack in terms of integrated services in northern Europe. More immediately, however, wireless carriers just want to perform triage on their hemorrhaging average return per user while also reducing network overhead, and converged networks might be the ticket. Pekka Piirola, director of convergence, network business, for Nokia Corp., said that they think the convergence of services and networks will be a radical change in the marketplace.

Compares the performance of Internet protocol virtual private networks and that of the frame relay services in the European market in 2004. Information on a report on growth opportunities and forecasts on business data services from 2003 to 2008 conducted by Margaret Hopkins of Analysys; Reaction of telecommunications companies to the adoption of frame relay; Price and revenue differences of the data services.