In 1984, Bill Cadogan got a taste for revolution. The United States government decreed that the telecommunications behemoth for which he worked, AT&T, should be broken up and sold, its monopolies ended. It changed everything forever.

Now, many former AT&T colleagues are sprinkled throughout the US telecommunications industry. At virtually every company, he says, the top person is ex-AT&T. It is an industry changing faster than almost any other. Until relatively recently - even after the break-up of AT&T - companies concentrated on delivering straightforward telephone service. Now with the arrival of high-speed broadband technologies, the focus has completely changed; customers can get rapid Internet access, online video and multimedia from the same people who previously just gave them a dial tone. Soon, they will get it all on one line.

"This is the next wave of telecommunications, migration from narrow band where there is a separate network for each of voice data and video, to broadband where you have integrated voice data and video over a single network," says Mr Cadogan.

His company ADC, which last week bought the Galway-based software company Saville Systems for $700 million (€674.57 million), is principally a hardware firm.

"We have technologies that allow you to get more capacity down a traditional copper wire, we are the company providing telephony and data services over the cable infrastructure, and we also have ways of delivering these broadband services over wireless," he says. "In the case of broadband wireless, we can provide a complete, turnkey wireless system for broadband services, with voice, data and video combined."

Because Saville provides the software for such products, he believes it represents a perfect fit with ADC. He predicts that the enlarged company will grow by at least 30 per cent this year.

"This whole notion of the migration from narrow band to broadband is kicking off convergence. We provide the convergent hardware platforms, Saville provides the convergent software, billing and customer care systems. So if you look at all these new providers entering the market, there is a huge opportunity. So while 30 per cent sounds like an aggressive number, I would tell you that I would be disappointed if we grew [any] less," he says.

He also wants the software side of the business, which now represents 25 per cent of sales, to grow to 40 per cent within a couple of years. He sees software as an indispensable part of company strategy.

"That is where the growth is," he adds. "Many service providers, as more competition arises, are cutting prices. Wireless would be a good example - prices keep coming down, it's so many cents per minute, then someone undercuts them, and they get undercut yet again. As that continues, I think carriers are coming to the realisation that if they are going to succeed in the long term, they have to have a distinctive package of services that are not easily duplicated by another competitor."

"And to have that flexibility requires a lot of software capability added to the hardware platforms, as well as having the convergent billing and network management to manage those networks. So I think software really is the tool that provides the flexibility to compete in what's becoming a very crowded market," he says.

Last week, Saville opened its new facility, right across from its old one in the IDA Ireland industrial park at Dangan. The company - soon to be known as ADC Saville - will assume control over some other elements of ADC's business, while the Galway location will become its European software "centre for excellence".

But ADC's hardware business is also growing rapidly in Europe; last year sales jumped by more than 100 per cent to $120 million.

Mr Cadogan - whose father's people are from Dublin and whose mother's name was Feeney, from Cork - is in talks with the IDA to base the entire European operation in Ireland. Presumably because those negotiations continue, he is coy about giving absolute commitments.

"We are currently based in Brussels, although we are considering changing that," he says. "When we look to Ireland as a gateway to Europe, we think there are a lot of telling advantages to locating here. "You have a very capable labour force. The fact that they speak English is a major advantage, the fact that we already have [in Saville] a technology presence - to add incrementally to that is likely to be easier than starting a brand new green field somewhere else."

"With ADC growing so quickly, the opportunity is there for a significant expansion of ADC's presence in Ireland," he adds. "The timescale is probably in the next 12 to 18 months."

With Saville, ADC now has a workforce of 12,000 people. Mr Cadogan says that as chief executive, he does feel the weight on his shoulders of so many monthly mortgage repayments.

"Absolutely! I mean, it is an exciting opportunity - I don't think there's an industry that is growing and changing as much as telecommunications. But at the same time it is a sobering experience to [know] you are responsible for the personal outcomes for 12,000 people. That is a lot of mouths to feed, a lot of people to be clothed and educated."

In an industry growing at upwards of 15 per cent a year, is there anything that could go wrong?

"Sure, if there were a major recession that affected the economies of the US and Europe. But I think, internal to the industry, the technological march to broadband can't be stopped. "It is inevitable that the demand for faster Internet access, multimedia applications to your home computer, video teleconferencing in the business environment will continue. Those trends are all well in place, and I don't think anything is going to upset them."

He is concerned about the policies of some governments, he adds, especially moves to charge VAT or other sales taxes on purchases made on the Internet.

"I am fundamentally opposed to taxing commerce on the Internet. It is an emerging industry; it is creating many, many jobs, stimulating a lot more economic development; it is the major force in terms of technological growth. I think to tax that would retard the growth of that industry," he says.