In either case, it's good news for customers. At the top of this year's technological innovations are IP telephony and IP convergence. It's also about furnishing an enterprise network that is as reliable as your existing phone system. And while it's not there yet, IP convergence is moving swiftly, with Alcatel, Cisco Systems and others delivering strong solutions. By this time next year, we expect these solutions to have moved well beyond pilot stage.
Innovation is also the watchword when it comes to network equipment.
Reigning Speeds LAN technology has remained relatively stable in the past year. In 2000, we saw the debut of gigabit over copper, which is starting to gain momentum in the enterprise. Looking forward, we expect gigabit over copper to follow the same adoption curve 100-Mbps Ethernet traveled. Ten Gigabit Ethernet is the next step for a technology that was never expected to go beyond 10 Mbps. Although its ratification is more than a year away, vendors already are delivering 10 Gigabit Ethernet prototypes.