The telecommunication and Internet sectors are converging, but there remain some fundamental differences between the two network cultures.

Telecommunications is a much more controlled and regulated environment (sometimes referred to as "stateful") in which provisions are made for charging of calls and ensuring a minimum acceptable level of voice quality.

The Internet on the other hand is "stateless", a much less controlled environment that has been described by some as being more like the "Wild West". This is one reason why it is highly attractive to many providers of content.

Telecommunication players are switching to using Internet Protocol (IP) for the following reasons:

• the Internet is available anywhere and everywhere
  
• the Internet can support a variety of services e.g. voice, data, image
  
• the Internet provides economies of scale, with low costs from high volumes.
  
• IP is already used by millions of Internet users
  
• the telecom players want to move into the Web market
  
• the telecom sector could compete with an Internet type service
  
• many telecoms players are already working in partnerships with Internet companies, e.g. Sprint and Cisco, Lucent and Ascend.

The quality of voice telephone calls over the Internet and other IP networks still falls well short of the quality expected on ordinary telephone services, though this is expected to improve in the future.

The Convergence of Technology and Electronic Number Mapping (ENUM).
There are a number of technical problems which currently prevent the standardisation of access to the Internet and other IP networks.

ENUM (electronic number mapping) is one possible solution to this. ENUM telephone numbers can become a unique identification for each user, spanning every different device or network they use. Applications such as Voice over IP using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and integrated messaging services will be able to exploit ENUM. It will also be possible to use ENUM in the set-up and routing of telephone calls. Therefore ENUM will be at the core of the convergence between telephony and the Internet. More information on ENUM is available from the Download centre and eCommunications Policy and Consultation under Content Summary.