With cheap mobile minutes on their way, the next chapter in the evolution of mobile telecommunications will be services-based telephony. This technology follows the current software-as-a-service and virtualisation computing trend, with soft-switch services providing the platform for enabling converged voice communications.

Imagine a world where you have one phone number for all your phones, for life. This future reality will be delivered using software that will link a number to people as they change jobs and network operators. It will reach them across multiple devices, both fixed and mobile, across all software platforms, and to devices not yet conceived or invented. (Famous futurist Ray Kurzweil even talks about phones embedded under the skin.) This single number will have a single converged voice mailbox that can archive voicemails and back them up for life. It will also offer voice to text transcription services delivered by SMS or e-mail.