Within five years 80 per cent of Internet data will be video, said an industry expert, adding that "we are in the final throes of the complete convergence of telecoms and media.”

"Companies competing through ever faster data and higher performing infrastructure will be competing towards zero," added Gerd Leonhard, futurist, author and CEO of The Futures Agency.

He refers to this union as "telemedia", which has profound implications for the wholesale telecoms industry.

“Companies like Facebook are already sitting on top of the telcos, using ever more data but with no responsibility for the infrastructure," added Leonhard, who will be participating at Capacity Middle East 2014, as the Exclusive Keynote Speaker on March 3.

“Telecom operators will have to create new business models and improve IP connectivity in order to generate revenue from this future convergence,” he said.

"Interdependence is the only way for the model to grow," Leonhard noted. “If we are to avoid a dystopian future characterised by mutually inaccessible ‘splinternets’; we need to reach internationally agreed standards and protocols.”

He advocates a kind of "Global Internet Council" as a solution but concedes that the appropriate body has yet to be established.

"Many people recognize parts of these issues; few people have a truly holistic view. Getting this story across is my mission,” he said.

Taking place alongside Capacity Middle East is Smart Media Middle East, a major event to address strategies for content delivery and monetisation across the entire content ecosystem.

Both events take place at the Grand Hyatt, Dubai with Capacity Middle East taking place March 3 to 5 and Smart Media Middle East taking place on March 6. – TradeArabia News Service