"This is a threat to enterprises in that they will find fewer network operators of traditional services, and an opportunity in that they may see new service providers," Passmore says.

With so many changes afoot, businesses should focus on keeping their options open, says Passmore. "Absolutely do not sign any long-term contracts, because prices continue to plummet," he advises.

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Expanding Business Services

As revenues from voice services plummet, telecommunications carriers are pursuing business services to make up for that loss. Sprint Nextel Corp. wants to more tightly integrate its service offerings with IT operations through Web services. For example, it would like to offer LDAP-based provisioning and authentication services and integrate them with the customer's internal LDAP database. Its next-generation network architecture will include not just IP but the full suite of Internet protocols, including RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service) for billing and accounting, and XML for communicating subscriber information and passing it between devices, says David Zufall, vice president of architecture strategy at Sprint Nextel. "We want to be flexible enough to allow enterprises to add their own services," he explains.