ABSTRACT
Convergence involves developments in different fields that can be utilized to do something in a manner better than was possible before the convergence. Digital convergence is the unification of functions, combining technological development with business opportunity. A. Malhotra and A. K. Gupta give two types of industry convergence: functional convergence and complementary convergence. The mobile phone has evolved from the convergence of electronics with telecommunications. The 1996 Telecommunications Act split the American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) monopoly into a variety of firms, to include seven regional companies. One type of industry convergence is merger and acquisition (M&A), and this has been found in the telephony industry, where only one of those seven operating companies continues in its original form. The other six have evolved into three companies such as SBC, Qwest, and Verizon. One path was the purchase of NINEX by Bell Atlantic, and the subsequent merger of Bell Atlantic with GTE to become Verizon.
