RFID tags: 200 billion a year until 2015

Hossein Eslambolchi, AT&T's CIO, CTO and president of global networking technology services, told delegates at the Networld + Interop show today that the current buzzword technologies - IP, RFID and the virtual office - will be unavoidable in a few years' time.

"Beneath the jargon, I believe something major and fundamental is happening in our business... it will change the life of every individual on the planet in 10 to 20 years," he said.

With analysts predicting an RFID market that will reach $2.8bn by 2009, Eslambolchi said the wireless tagging technology is set to experience an explosion: "RFID will take off dramatically - we will be generating 100 billion to 200 billion RFID tags every year for the next 10 years," he said.

As well as causing a major upheaval in the supply chain of most retailers, it seems the RFID boom could give CIOs a compliance headache.

"By 2012, a lot of data will come in from edge of network... the way we have to do searching will be different to what we're used to," Eslambolchi said.

The definition of a network is also set for a radical shift, according to the AT&T CIO. "I predict the home environment will end up to be the business environment, with the home becoming an extension of the business."

Eslambolchi has no doubt about what that network will be based on, however.

"IP will eat everything like a Pac-Man - I made that prediction three or four years ago. I think that game is already over. Now it's about putting services over IP."

IP will also contribute to uptake of teleworkers, Eslambolchi said. He predicts the number of teleworkers will rise to 250 million globally by 2012.

"Geography means nothing in the IP space. Once you're given an IP address, it doesn't really matter where you're located... I believe the amount of telecommuting and virtual offices will accelerate at an enormous pace."