Integrating All Communications1．Have you ever felt frustrated when you have to contact your friends, but cannot reach them even you've tried to call to their mobile phones, pager and telephone? You may have to try again and again to reach them through other means such as the Internet or ICQ chat lines until you find where they are.2．But never fear, the future will bring this running around to an end, an executive with Lucent Technologies says.3．'If you contact your friend through a traditional telephone, but you find no one there, the network will automatically search for other communication means until your friend is available and connects you, maybe through his mobile phone or instant message account,' Robert Cohen, Lucent's global product marketing director, said.4．The integration of different communication networks will make this possible, he said. The integrated telecommunication network is expected to be the next big thing in the next couple of years.5．Future networks will be developed to be multi-service networks that can support all kinds of communication methods and provide multiple communication services to users. Users would be able to communicate with one another across the different devices with a variety of multimedia contents such as voice, data and video.6．'It's the next generation network,' Cohen said. 'It's to combine fixed-line telephone, wireless communication, cable as well as the Internet under the same network, and allow communication to be done across different communication technologies.'7．Adoption of the integrated technologies will help lay the foundation for the 'single number' concept. Instead of having several contact numbers used for several kinds of devices, people will be assigned one number, and this number will be used to allow their friends to contact them through E-mail, mobile phone, pager, instant message or other kinds of devices. 'With just one number your friends will be able to contact you through all communication methods as the number will associate with each individual's communication device connected to the network, 'Cohen said.8．To usher the industry in the future, Lucent has introduced what is called SoftSwitch technology to be the brain for the 'next generation' network. SoftSwitch allows telecom operators to integrate different kinds of communication networks, even old circuit-based networks or the new 'packet' networks.9．The technology also allows operators to create enhanced communication services on their existing network infrastructure, helping them to take a shorter time for new service delivery