Say You Want an IMS Revolution

September 26, 2005

In conversations that I had with various industry dignitaries last week, IMS either represents the�future or it's just another pain-in-the-keister architecture.

Technology market reaseach firm In-Stat is the former category,�revealing in a press release that�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."

"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," said In-Stat analyst Henry Goldberg in a prepared statement.� "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."

�In-Stat's report, "IMS for Wireline/Wireless Multimedia Convergence: The Vision, Strategies, and Challenges," found the following:

- The migration to IMS will be gradual, with service providers initially deploying overlay networks to test new services and the working of the new architecture;

- A challenge to service providers is to identify the types of multimedia services that different market segments�will buy;

- Service providers are migrating to VoIP infrastructures based on softswitches to reduce costs.� "In-Stat believe 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."

According to the release, the report also includes profiles of "the four leading U.S. service providers that operate both wireline and wireless businesses, discussing their perspectives and strategies with respect to evolving to IMS."

For more information: http://www.instat.com/catalog/Wcatalogue.asp?id=272