Converged services, LTE drive IMS deployment

MASSACHUSETTS, USA: There is a notable continuing shift toward IMS in the mobile world, evidenced by the rising number of mobile services planned over IMS by 2013, finds market research firm Infonetics Research.

"Our 2011 survey results show that fixed-line VoIP continues to be the primary service deployed over IMS. Seventy eight per cent of our respondents will have a mobile-specific service such as mobile messaging, VoLTE (voice over LTE), RCS (Rich Communication Service), and/or VoIP over 3G by 2013, up from 35 per cent today," notes Diane Myers, directing analyst, VoIP and IMS,  Infonetics Research.

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The two key factors driving IMS deployments are ability to offer converged services and LTE (Long Term Evolution) network deployment.

While there appear to be no big barriers left to IMS deployment, indicated by the low numbers of respondents rating any factors "definitely a barrier" in either the 2011 or 2010 editions of Infonetics' IMS survey, integration with existing back-end systems tops the list.

At least half of the service provider respondents plan to launch RCS, video telephony, and video sharing services over the next two years.

Nokia Siemens Networks is the leading CSCF and HSS vendor in terms of products installed and under evaluation.

When asked who they consider to be among the top three IMS infrastructure vendors, service providers named Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent the most.

Huawei poses a credible threat to Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens Networks, as carrier respondents consider Huawei a leader in  categories such as pricing and value, in addition to gaining service provider customers.