IMS is our Future

This article will be a portion of my first column in Volume 1, Issue 1 in the new TMC launch, IMS Magazine.

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Never before in my history in the telecom space have so many agreed on something so quickly. IMS is supposed to take over the world. It will unify wireless, wireline and all communications like never before. It will allow small developers to develop applications and deploy them to networks with millions of subscribers overnight. It will allow companies to make their workers more productive, give central control of telephony and allow communications to be based on contacting a person, not an army of disparate devices and phone numbers.

I have joked when I keynote various conferences that the last time so many people agreed on something so rapidly, it was OS/2. Surprisingly, as I am one of the few who have made potentially negative public comments on IMS, I have also decided to launch the first IMS publication in the world. Why?

The reason is that IMS holds tremendous promise for service providers and customers. It unifies what is now disparate. It ties together what is now uncoupled. It has the potential to solve many telecom problems and increase flexibility and connectivity.

These goals are utopian but technologies like VoIP and SIP have allowed us to have a platform on which we can make the leap to IMS. Telecom utopia is what we as an industry should strive for. Of course customers are willing to pay for utopia… We have a bright future as a telecom industry; we will have customers spending more to get more.

But how do we get our customers in larger numbers, how do we get new customers to convert to your IMS systems and what solutions should you be purchasing and deploying?

These questions are what you will find answered in each issue of IMS Magazine. This publication will be the world’s resource on how service providers will make the next billion dollars plus. As the industry publication we are the cheerleaders of IMS and the evangelists. At the same time we promise to detail the drawbacks and pitfalls that need to be solved allowing this new telecom opportunity to take off and generate happier customers and tremendous amounts of new sales.

  • VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com
    February 10, 2006 at 1:33 pm

    IMS Questions

    As part of my first Publisher’s Outlook in the upcoming IMS Magazine I asked some industry experts what they thought about the IMS market. Here is the result of our e-mail discussions:Please describe IMS.Grant Henderson, Executive Vice President of Mar…

  • Ted Shelton
    February 10, 2006 at 10:29 pm

    Geesh – are you being paid by AT&T? The reality is that IMS is the technical cover story for old style cartel control of the Internet. I am not saying that we couldn’t use some of the capabilities of IMS… just that the implementation plan puts the control in the hands of the large network operators and NOT in the hands of customers. This is a power grab, not an attempt to improve quality of service.

  • Rich Tehrani
    February 11, 2006 at 8:49 pm

    I am not being paid by AT&T but I do realize that there are individuals concerned with IMS being used as a system of control. I so very much want the Internet to be a free place and for millions to use VoIP and enjoy the benefits of better, faster, cheaper telephony. I also realize that companies need to make money.
    I am not a fan of LECs controlling as much as they do now and I am not a fan of a two-tiered Internet. I am a fan of a rich and vibrant telephony market where AT&T and others have a chance to make lots of money and be successful.
    Expect IMS magazine to be a place where we can discuss how IMS can make our lives better and how service providers and others can make money from IP Multimedia Subsystems. Also expect healthy debate on the issues you point out. We are at the beginning of what can truly be a transformational telecom technology. Let’s not kill the idea just yet. Let’s let it germinate and grow and hopefully as it evolves it will turn into something that benefits those that want telecom freedom and those that want to generate more revenue by selling communications services.
    If we disagree then that is OK. I don’t know it all and a healthy dialogue is the best way others can learn the benefits and pitfalls of IMS.

  • Ted Shelton
    February 11, 2006 at 9:38 pm

    Rich — thanks for the response.
    I guess that my need to critique your position stems from the unqualified first sentence of your post —
    “Never before in my history in the telecom space have so many agreed on something so quickly.”
    I felt it was important to point out that many people do NOT agree. I believe (as many others do) that IMS carries with it as many pitfalls as it does solutions.
    In the end technology is neither good nor evil — people are. And the uses people put technology to are in service of their good or evil intentions.
    I understand the mercantile impulse to promote your new publication, but a healthy debate about the role of different players in the ecosystem and how IMS could be used as a technical front for cartel behavior by network operators should be at the forefront of your publication — if you intend this to be a service to our industry at large and not just a vehicle for certain large and entrenched players.

  • Rich Tehrani
    February 11, 2006 at 9:49 pm

    Your comments will be welcome in the publication as well. In my view a publication is a forum for many ideas. This sort of debate that gets readers thinking is exactly what we want to encourage. If you would like to contribute to the publication with a letter to the editor or article, please advise. In the end, I am now an IMS cheerleader but at the same time I have been a vocal advocate of consumer choice and not always pro LEC.
    At the same time the greater telecom industry benefits when the companies in our space are profitable and strong. If Skype is the only telephone company there is no telecom industry. And I am a huge fan of Skype!
    Regarding the statement:
    “Never before in my history in the telecom space have so many agreed on something so quickly.”
    From the perspective of equipment companies who provide gateways and session border controllers, IMS is the future. The same goes for virtually all service providers I speak with from Level 3 to AT&T to the wireless companies.
    The people in decision-making roles are all unanimous. There are people such as yourself that are concerned about entrenched players controlling more of our content and activities online. These are legitimate concerns.
    Again, you are welcome to contribute to the magazine if you so choose.

  • VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com
    February 14, 2006 at 3:48 pm

    NexTone on IMS

    I have gotten more than one comment (see the bottom of the page) from people who tell me that IMS will enable service providers to lock in customers and provide walled gardens, in effect keeping customers hostage. Not everyone shares…

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