They felt that policy positioning would have to be looked into from the requirements of the users, service providers, home and mass entertainment segments. Affordability and accessibility of services would be the key issues in the future.

The three-day exhibition and conference with the participation of over 270 exhibitors from 23 countries concluded here today.

"This event reminds me of some of the regional meets that ITU organizes, if not in extent definitely in its impact and content", said Dr.D.P.S.Seth, member, TRAI, chairing a day-long discussion on Voice over IP products and
technologies.

"The collapsing distance is changing tariff evaluation making long distance and local calls distinction irrelevant", Dr. Seth said as 3ComIndia, 3D Networks, Veraz Networks, Audio Codes, Vocal Tec and others explained the significance of converging IP networks carrying both voice and data.

The three-day event debated a range of issues like broadband, mobility, new business models, new sources of revenue, regulatory and policy issues, new generation networks and services, access technologies, satellite
communications, broadcast technologies, billing and CRM and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

The 12th Convergence India 2004 also outlined a roadmap for future policy position based on the deliberations. Participants felt that India today provided level playing field conditions and enabling environment for
absorbing new technology and new investment propositions.

Broadband was the key to future. This was a global phenomenon and India has to keep pace with the international development.

The participation of several telecom companies from China, Korea, the USA and technology companies from Israel and France, providing a variety of products in broadband, broadcasting and their convergence, bringing together voice, data and video was the highlight of the event.

Korea Telecom, a global player in broadband services for both home and offices participated in the event with a high-powered delegation led by its president and CEO, Dr. Yong-Kyung Lee. Over 11million Korean households use broadband now and over KT provides half of it, he said.

Driving the coming broadband convergence, BSNL, the government owned largest telecom service provider in this country has already signed an agreement with KT for promoting broadband on its copper cables spanning the country.

New chipsets produced by technology leader Qualcomm are at the core of some of the new converged services on mobile phones. Tata Tele Services and Qualcomm group signed an MOU on push-to-talk service on mobile phones was hailed as another indicator of the many new services that were converging on mobile in the coming months in the country.

In other developments, Trango Broadband appointed Micro Village as its authorized agent for the SAARC region to distribute fixed wireless technology for last mile broadband access. All of Tango's last mile wireless
Ethernet distribution products and video transmission solutions will be offered by Micro Village effective immediately with local stock, compliance with regulatory requirements and local technical support in many of India's native languages.

Listing the advantages of Code Division Multiple Access system in providing affordable connectivity with high data rate for both urban and rural users, Dr. Joseph Shapira, founder chairman of technology company Celletra
presented some of the new products for network management, like Call Sharper for load balancing, Smart Chester for integrated measurement and control system. "CDMA outperforms all others," he claimed giving the technology perspective on the system.

Scientific Atlanta, as always bullish on India, said it would be working in partnerships with cable and telecom operators in India, and bring new services on their networks. A spokesman said the operators need more sources of revenue to afford these services. The objective is to build interactivity to the last mile.