Technological change from a circuit based network to a packet based network

Technological change from a circuit based network to a packet based network can provide considerable consumer benefits.
Economic advantages are one of the main reasons for the growth of packet voice networking, it has been estimated that packet voice networking costs 20 to 30 percent of an equivalent circuit-based voice network, due to lower hardware and software costs moreover the greater efficiency of packet transmission.
Furthermore economics influence moving onto a single packet network for voice, data, image, and video, in the long-term is greatly cheaper than maintaining two parallel networks, circuit-switched for voice and packet-switched for data.

References
Joseph Kraemer 2002, "SUMMARY OF STRATEGIC TRENDS IN THE U.S.TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY" http://www.newmillenniumresearch.org/archive/trends.pdf