Delegates at this year's Cisco Networkers Conference in Brisbane were told that while service providers need to add more value to their product offerings, enterprises would benefit from outsourcing core network capabilities.
Boland believes that telecommunications products will behave like commodities as deregulation sets-in, flattening revenue growth from fixed voice and data services.
If the model succeeds, enterprises would no longer build "overlay" networks on raw bandwidth products.
"Currently enterprises have to become service providers to meet their needs," Boland said.
According to Boland, enterprises will increase profits if they can eliminate capital and management costs associated with duplicating network services.
Boland believes the convergence of voice and data services onto an Internet Protocol model is the goal of a natural industry trend that has already started, pointing to the number of solution providers who offer Internet compatible products.
The model depends on the availability of fibre-optic broadband pipes.
Recently Cisco joined Microsoft and other industry groups criticising the Australian Federal Government for failing to act on its call to improve broadband availability throughout the nation.
Independent Telstra subsidiary and network construction company, NDC, doesn't expect demand for broadband to fall behind supply in the foreseeable future. The latter recently downsized, citing a lack of new contracts for the move.
Boland's prediction lies at the heart of the theme for this year's conference but it came with a caveat.
Under the model, service providers would experience less "churn" but bare a much greater burden for keeping enterprise services trading.
He warned that enterprises and service providers would need to take a close look at their Service Level Agreements.
"I'm trying to make enterprises and service providers talk," he said, explaining that carriers who provide storage services are already confronting the issue.
Andrew Colley travelled to Brisbane as a guest of Cisco.
