All the networks are currently wrestling with ways to charge for services on packet networks.
In time, packet networks will almost entirely replace more expensive and less capable circuit-switched networks.
The interlinked packet networks of computers became the Internet.
Circuit-switched telephone systems have been replaced by packet-switched networks (most notably the Internet).
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But what starts out as government or military technology often ends up in commercial applications, as packet-switched networks and the global-positioning system demonstrate.
Now that wide-area wireless network operators recognize Wi-Fi hotspots as complementary to their advanced packet-data networks, they will end up owning or leasing most of today's hotspots and will build out coverage.
Another beneficiary of the migration to IP networks is Acme Packet ( APKT, 41) in Burlington, Mass.
Analysts say enabling technologies like GPRS (a packet-networking upgrade for GSM networks) and WAP will spur the growth of data and multimedia services, as well as drive corporate use of mobile data services.
The smart phone market will only take off when technologies such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) are implemented in mobile networks, enabling faster transfer rates of data via mobile phone, she said.
Floyd founded Efficient in 1993 with the idea of using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), an industrial-strength packet technology, to route data around local area networks.
The answer has little to do with what Acme Packet is than what the technology titans expect worldwide carrier networks to become.
Once third-generation networks arrive, all of them will be packet-based.
Japanese users pay by the packet for the data they use on DoCoMo's networks, but Americans, accustomed to flat-fee Net and phone deals, may balk at pay-per-use pricing that can result in month-end sticker shock.
"Popular online applications like gaming, Voice over IP (VoIP) and HD video are some of the most sensitive to latency and packet loss over Wi-Fi connections, " said Bigfoot Networks CEO Michael Howse.
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And since the modules from Intel and Nokia will not hit the market until the latter part of 2007, many believe that by then, the market will already be moving to even higher-speed networks such as WiMax and another technology known as High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).
An internal retractable modem will enable a user to connect with some of the most popular wireless networks today, including Motient's DataTAC, BellSouth's Mobitex and CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data).
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