Driving the need for new services is a dominant trend: traditional TDM (Time Division Multiplexed) fixed line phone networks are being transformed into a pure IP network for voice, data, video and everything else.

With the emergence of new technologies like IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem)-which supports IP services on both mobile and fixed networks-IT needs to prepare service provisioning and billing systems to support IMS services. "The challenge is that the ultimate applications for IMS is still evolving," said Poon. "Flexible software architecture-such as SOA, which is based on web services standards-will enable you to build services that can be changed quickly and easily."

When paired with new broadband wireless IP technology WiMax, IMS can support broadband applications anywhere. WiMax and 3G will coexist, declared Poon: "3G is a mobile phone technology, whereas WiMax is based on IP and is a data-centric network. You can use multimedia services on WiMax."

The latest version of WiMax can support high-speed mobility, and as a result, noted Poon: "All data applications running on 3G will run on WiMax, and PDAs and notebooks will also use WiMax [as] its bandwidth is superior."

"The mobile road map is that GSM first migrated to GPRS, then to the 3G network," he said. "It will next upgrade to HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), also known as 3.5G, to improve frequency utilization, upgrading bandwidth from 384Kbps up to over 1Mbps.