CALIFORNIA, USA: Sales of policy server software are forecast to grow in the high double-digit percentages every year through at least 2013, when the worldwide market is expected to hit $1.12 billion.

This is according to market research firm Infonetics Research's second edition of its biannual Policy Servers market size, share, and forecast report, which tracks fixed line and 3G broadband, WiMAX, and LTE wireless policy server software.

Shira Levine, directing analyst for next gen OSS and policy at Infonetics Research, says: "Policy servers remain a key part of operators' strategies for managing bandwidth consumption and pricing resources, and also are increasingly being used to enhance and differentiate applications, reduce churn and increase ARPU."
 
The report adds that while the policy server market did see a slowdown during the first half of 2009 due to adverse economic conditions, RFI and RFP activity has picked up, with sizable deals expected to be announced in the last few months of 2009 and the first half of 2010.

"As a result, operators' IT and marketing departments are recognizing the value that policy servers can provide to their service offerings and the overall customer experience, and are playing a more prominent role in policy control decisions and implementations," Levine explains.

In a tight race for policy server market share leadership, Alcatel-Lucent, Bridgewater, Camiant, Ericsson, Juniper, and Nokia Siemens together own 70 percent+ of the worldwide market.

Moreover, policy server revenue from mobile network operators will quickly dwarf revenue from cable operators and fixed line telcos, as mobile operators increasingly use policy servers to manage 3G data network resources and authorize subscribers accessing streaming video, ringtones, games, and other applications.

Also, WiMAX and LTE deployments will drive significant long-term growth in the wireless policy server segment.