6. What does the future hold for ATM?

As the century draws to a close, telecoms services are becoming the prey of all-out media coverage, and the underlying networks the focus of major global maneuvers. The competitive constraints weighing on network operators force them to adopt short-term adaptation tactics, leaving little room for network evolution strategies based on medium-term visions. As for the great technical adventures, they seem to have lost much of their appeal.

The question is whether ATM, the first truly global telecoms standard, will see the light of day in its own right, or whether the efforts made by the international telecoms community will have merely advanced the state of knowledge and will be put to good use... by techniques that are now competing with ATM.

It's an understatement to say that the successive players who have worked on the ATM cradle have transformed...