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27th September 2005 - The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) has
become one of the hottest topics in telecommunications. In-Stat
believes that IMS provides a unifying vision for the future
of telecommunications, and that it is more appropriate now
to think of IMS as an overall IP Multimedia System that consists
of a single, converged architecture for wireline and wireless
service providers, end-user devices with the required IP multimedia
functionality, and the systems integration necessary to deliver
high-quality IP multimedia services for and between any set
of wireline and wireless end-users.
According to the high-tech market research firm, IMS is a
revolutionary vision for the future of the telecommunications
industry, leading to new multimedia services, new network
architectures, new business models and relationships, and
new end-user devices with new capabilities. In the long term,
all telecommunications services (voice services, business
networking services, the Internet, IPTV) will be provided
through IMS.
IMS will deliver the 'Holy Grail' of convergence of access
to multimedia services/applications across any end-user device
that all service providers are seeking to offer their customers
in the future. But providers have a long list of challenges
facing them that must be overcome to fully migrate to a converged
network architecture for their entire wireline and wireless
businesses.
A recent report by In-Stat found the following:
- The migration towards IMS will be a gradual evolution
where service providers initially deploy overlay networks
to test new services and the workings of the new architecture.
- A key challenge for service providers is to understand
the types of multimedia services that different market segments
will be willing to buy.
- Service providers are migrating to VoIP infrastructures
based on softswitches to reduce costs. In-Stat believes
that there is a strong impetus for service providers to
instead put in an IMS infrastructure which can deliver the
same VoIP services and cost savings, but also adds the potential
for increased revenues from a variety of new multimedia
services.
This Market Alert is drawn form the In-Stat report, "IMS
for Wireline/Wireless Multimedia Convergence: The Vision,
Strategies, and Challenges", which provides an overview
of IMS including the new multimedia services that it enables,
the IMS architectural model, the benefits to service providers
and end-users, and the multiple challenges that service providers
face in evolving to this new system. Profiles are provided
of the four leading US service providers that operate both
wireline and wireless businesses, discussing their perspectives
and strategies with respect to evolving to IMS. The overall
IMS solutions and early customers of eight leading equipment
vendors are described. Also included is an assessment of the
current IMS market and key factors that can stimulate implementation.
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