Title: Some implications of an overly used word: convergence

Authors: DongBack Seo, Mostafa Hashem Sherif

Addresses: Department of Business and ICT, University of Groningen, Landleven 5, 9747 AD Groningen, The Netherlands. ' AT&T, Room C5-2D18, 200 S. Laurel Avenue, Middletown, NJ 07748, USA

Abstract: Telecommunications and information processing are increasingly adopting the same digital technologies, and the boundaries between the two are shifting. The expression |convergence of information and communications technology (ICT)|, initially used to describe some technical aspects of this phenomenon, was later expanded to cover many other technical and political agendas. In this paper, we show that in western countries, technological convergence provided an apparently neutral justification for changes in the regulatory regime so that market forces would create the industrial environment, instead of political or democratic forces. However, in Korea and Japan, governments and companies have used the theme of convergence to mobilise efforts towards a global ICT leadership. We explain how the word |convergence| in the context of the network layer has different implications than in the other layers of the ICT industry. The use of an appropriate terminology or, if this is not possible, an understanding of the context, is the first indispensable step to comprehend and analyse the complex phenomena of ICT evolution today.

Keywords: ICT convergence; technological convergence; divergence; fusion; diversity; deregulation; ubiquitous network; regulatory regimes; regulation; ICT evolution; information technology; communications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2009.032179

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2009 Vol.4 No.4, pp.316 - 337

Received: 02 Jun 2009
Accepted: 25 Nov 2009
Published online: 15 Mar 2010 *

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