Like the song says, things are easy when you're big in Japan. I wonder if that's as true today for a Massachussets-based provider of VoIP and IMS equipment as it was for 1980's German synth pop outfit Alphaville...

Sonus Networks revealed yesterday that it has been named the leading provider of VoIP solutions for Japan by Synergy Research in a recent survey. In the survey, Sonus led the market with a 36.1% market share position, more than double any other equipment provider and (according to Synergy) also accounted for approximately 76% of the high-density gateway market and more than 61% of the total gateway market in Japan in 2005.

Sonus is also making big noise in the IMS market.

Sonus customers read like a who’s who of Japanese carriers: KDDI, Fusion Communications, Jupiter Communications, NTT, Softbank Broadband, WILLCOM, Inc… and the success that the equipment maker is having in the Japanese VoIP market portends good things for future IMS deployments.

Our own Rich Tehrani conducted an interesting interview with Hassan Ahmed, Sonus’ CEO for the premiere issue of IMS Magazine.

Sonus also recently announced a partnership with Atreus Systems that is designed to enable service providers to reduce operating costs and speed the delivery of hosted VoIP services by blending Sonus’ IMS gear with Atreus’ provisioning software for IMS, VoIP and IP service bundles. The goal of the partnership is to deliver a solution that empowers carriers to generate new revenue streams by simplifying the delivery of a suite of value-added consumer and business voice services, including Hosted PBX, business trunking, conferencing, and voice VPN.

The solution has reportedly been selected by an as yet unnamed, large North American carrier as the foundation for its next generation voice network.