hey turned out to be including: Personal Computers The Internet Fax Machines Cellular Telephones The year 2001 not only witnessed the end of the first dot.com boom, but also saw many telecommunications companies either go away or fall upon hard times. The general perception of why this happened is that too much capacity was built due to unreal- istically high expectations for demand. Other issues that shape the current marketplace include: Increased competition requires that companies sell circuits, telephone calls and data communications at increasingly lower prices without realizing lower costs for delivery. Government regulation requires the traditional local telephone company to rent pieces of its infrastructure (switching equip- ment, cables, etc.) to its competitors, enabling the competitors to offer the same services at lower prices. Not to mention that the legislation was tied up in the courts for over eight years, by which time most competitors went bankrupt anyway. The Telecom Handbook 38 139 CONVERGENCE OF VOICE & DATA The major telecommunications service providers have a sig- nificant investment in their infrastructure and are not likely to undertake a complete replacement anytime soon. Some of the "advanced services" they sell now have been around for 30 years. Unless the marketplace demands it, upgrading of network infrastructure will be a very slow process. The present glut in capacity primarily refers to many miles of cable that were run, but is not being used. However, a con- siderable investment in the associated electronic equipment to make the cable operable is still needed to take advantage of this excess. Until there is sufficient demand that will sup- port a high enough price, this investment to activate the cables may never take place. Expectation of the convergence of voice and data has been around for over thirty years, but has never played out in the manner that the companies with a vested interest in it have predicted. Many have come and gone without seeing their vi- sions realized. It