In his keynote address at IIW 2000 on Friday, Dr Jain said much of the bandwidth demand would come from SOHO users and online gamers. And, according to his analysis backed by a graph of bandwidth requirement, people above 50 would spend most of their time shopping online. The biggest drivers of bandwidth would still be e-commerce, e-mail, conferencing and video imaging.

According to Dr Jain, 80 per cent of revenues would be generated by IP-based services. Multi-function devices and rented applications running on cross-platform software would dominate the future, and tariff for access would become distance-independent.

Of the factors that would be of highest priority are security, transparency of transmission and functionality that enables users to locate and reach the information they require. Of course, it would be consumer-driven market.

Personalised and unified messaging that delivers content to users wherever they are, using whatever medium they choose, would drive communications in the future, he said.

According to Dr Jain, those who got in early, and used technology to the fullest, would benefit the most. "The technology is already there; we only need to create services that are differentiated and tailored according to the market".