Broadband nets will increasingly be provided through XML. Efforts to provision video, voice, and data services with XML is acquiring momentum as Telcordia Technologies Inc. began promoting their Maestro Internet Protocol multimedia service suite, and IBM Corp. announced its acquisition of XML accelerator provider DataPower Technology Inc., both in late October 2005. Central servers can use XML for message routing and security functions. Various XML providers have expressed interest in extending enterprise services to carrier environments. This development has struck many industry observers as propitious timing, since carriers are currently attempting to meet expectations forecast by IMS systems. These service-provisioning and gateway schemes are virtual locations for voice, data, and video services aggregates to be carried over an IP network. Slightly less starry-eyed observers have suggested IMS essentially describes a soft-switch function in carrier networks, though it is based on Session Initiation Protocol clients rather than Media Gateway Control Protocol. IMS supporters respond that widespread adoption of this technology could provide as beefy a market as $2.6 billion by 2008, not to mention begin the death of SS7 signaling. Until that rosy day when cable and wireless providers have absolutely similar quality-of-service measurements and billing methods, users and providers watch as this market sector slowly opens ever wider.