IP: For years, this next-gen technology has evoked visions of competitive insurgents, innovative upstarts, a shift toward data transport and an Internet-centric model, more efficient networks and the next-generation of communications technology. It became the de facto antithesis to telecom’s past: those incumbent carriers perceived by many to be the relics of the old Bell System, the operators saddled with legacy circuit-switched networks and the increasingly derisive “RBOC” moniker, still used (inaccurately, for the better part of a decade) in a thinly veiled effort to denote the holding company history of those mammoth dinosaurs that once ruled telecom.

Until now. Now, when the long process of network migration and new technology introduction has reached a point at which IP finally can be more completely embraced in those networks. Now, when regulatory mayhem and lobbying muscle has resulted in a far shorter competitive roster than existed five years back. Now, when network technology formats and their resulting services have had the opportunity to prove themselves in much smaller networks, when costs for deploying them have dropped, and when consumer interest in next-gen applications has piqued. Now, when economic peril has all but abated, making new investment and a demonstration of often-unmatchable spending power possible.

The most recent signals of the ultimate evolution of IP from insurgent territory to the land of--for lack of a better term, and in an effort not to contribute to the use of outdated misnomers--the largest incumbent carriers came with two announcements from SBC Communications: First, that it would roll out residential voice-over-IP services throughout its territories early next year. Second, that it will invest $400 million in a Microsoft software platform as part of its efforts to provide video services. Both are part of the carrier’s broader Project Lightspeed plan to offer IP services to 18 million homes by 2007). The Microsoft deal is further intriguing because the software developer’s IPTV Edition platform is early in development, which means SBC is taking another technological chance by committing to it.

Again, these are signals. The moves are not revolutionary when taken in the context of activity by many other carriers, and they are early steps in what is likely to be a long ramp-up process. But they represent IP commitment by one of the service provider community’s powerhouses, and they should elicit significant concern from the carrier’s competition.

The worst nightmare of the upstart telecom sector has come true: IP has become firmly rooted in the lexicon of the mainstream.