Communications service providers have no choice but to join the 21st century, deploy next generation networks, and support their customers' changing use of the communications network infrastructure. Why now? Customers have grabbed the attention of service providers by demanding the kinds of applications that will make their personal and professional lives easier. Enterprise customers want to increase support for their employees' and clients' use of complex content like corporate databases, applications and streaming video. Residential customers also want access to streaming video and games. Both groups need secure access with low latency and high reliability. Communications services providers must respond so they can create higher margins for themselves and greater differentiation among their competitors than they ever could based on selling bits per second.