For vendors, VoIP is the end game. (Broadband: technology and content in the broadband world).

Vendors, as a rule, do what their customers want. For that reason, you'll hear a lot of vendors these days talking about telephony switches and migratory paths that take HFC net-works and move them gently from more traditional constant bit rate (CBR) telephony methods to more radical Internet Protocol methods.

That's the lip service. Under their breaths, though, these same vendors will be chanting the mantra: "voice-over-Internet Protocol, voice-over-IP, VoIP."

That's where the future -- and therefore, the money -- is.

It's the primary reason why a traditional hard-wired vendor such as ADC Telecommunications paid $2.25 billion for software-strong startup Broadband Access Systems (BAS).

"We are now in a position to serve a tremendous global growth potential of IP-based service delivery over wired and wireless broadband networks," says Bill Cadogan, ADC's chairman/CEO.

Translated: "BAS had the IP stuff we need to take our networks to the next level, where we need to be to chase the next wave of the future."

ADC is focused in the circuit-switched environment," Cadogan says. "I think BAS brings a strong next-generation data packet capability. That's a point where ADC was very strong on the voice side, not as strong on the data side, but we think we've taken a large step toward remedying that situation with this merger."

It's a merger that is indicative of an industry trend: If you have the capability to move your traditional telephony solutions to IP, move them. …