All are generally considered to be more cost effective than the permanent leased lines that are the WAN link of choice at the moment. All new RFPs from Fortune 500 companies say they want to move from a Frame Relay WAN to an IP VPN.
Today we see commerce, creativity and productivity crippled by a lack of adequate road and rail transport compounded by no bandwidth to the home and office. So why should we expect anything less when it comes to true broadband?
For example, while on the road an engineer is likely to need access to the CRM or field force management system to know whom to visit, but will then need to interact with the ERP system as parts need to be sourced or ordered.
But I suppose it will be like everything else in the EU - we will have to wait for the control freaks to die before we see them replaced by those who really get IT. While they are there they should take a look at the road system and the airports too.
I don't expect to have to wait until 2018 to see some significant ICT innovation. As best we can estimate, ICT progress - in terms of chip technology - may well hit the end of the road (often referred to as Moore's Wall) around 2015 to 2018.
AT&T will deliver WAN and LAN, voice services including IP-based telephony, managed security solutions, mobility services and will support Shell's Virtual Private Network service for more than 50,000 remote workers.