CALIFORNIA, USA: Global IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) equipment manufacturer revenue is up 20 per cent sequentially and 87 per cent year-over year in 2Q11, according to market research firm Infonetics Research.

In its second quarter 2011 (2Q11) "IMS Equipment and Subscribers" market share report, it finds that in 2Q11, Asia Pacific contributed 68 per cent of all IMS equipment spending, driven primarily by activity in China, Japan, and South Korea.

Also Read: China buoys carrier VoIP and IMS market

Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research, said: "While parts of the carrier voice over IP equipment market, specifically softswitches and gateways, are faced with ongoing declines, the IMS equipment market is experiencing the opposite, up 87 per cent in the second quarter of 2011 compared to the same quarter a year ago."

The study also finds that mobile IMS-based spending will be a strong contributor to IMS market growth in the second half of 2011, particularly in North America as operators ramp up LTE deployments and prepare for VoLTE in 2012

"Many factors are contributing to strong IMS market growth: Large service providers in China and Europe are in the midst of significant class 5 replacement projects; subscribers are being added to existing IMS networks on an ongoing basis; and wireless operators in North America have launched IMS for messaging and plan to go live with voice over LTE (VoLTE) in 2012," Diane notes.

Alcatel-Lucent leads the fast-growing IMS session control function (CSCF) server market in 2Q11.

In a different report,  'Service Provider VoIP Equipment and Subscribers', Infonetics finds that in 2Q11, the global service provider VoIP equipment market (trunk media gateways, SBCs, media servers, softswitches, voice application servers), grew 13 per cent sequentially to $507 million.

However, year-over-year (from 2Q10 to 2Q11), the global market is down 10.4 per cent.

It also finds that session border controller (SBC) and voice application server (VAS) revenue is up 15 per cent and 42 per cent year-over-year, respectively, benefitting from the industry shift to IP and IMS.

GENBAND leads the combined service provider VoIP and IMS equipment market in 2Q11, followed by Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, Acme Packet, and Nokia Siemens Networks.