Infonetics Research: Carriers name Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens top IMS vendors

A new study by Infonetics Research that provides an in-depth view of service provider thinking and plans for IMS equipment and services, including service provider perceptions of leading IMS vendors, names Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Nokia Siemens as the "top IMS equipment manufacturers."

According to the study, Service Provider Plans for IMS, which surveyed service providers in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America-Caribbean, roughly 3/4 plan to offer fixed VoIP over IMS by April 2009.

"So far, IMS has mainly been deployed to support fixed-line VoIP services rather than multimedia services, likely because IMS multimedia services to date have shown varying degrees of success. As service providers accelerate their transition to VoIP to more efficiently compete, and as more of them experiment with new mobile and multimedia services, IMS will be the glue that bridges their heterogeneous networks together and assures standardization of those services," said Stéphane Téral, principal analyst at Infonetics for service provider VoIP, IMS, and mobile infrastructure.

Infonetics' study is based on formal interviews conducted by senior analysts with incumbents, mobile operators, and competitive operators, and examines the trends, drivers, challenges, and spending plans of service providers deploying IMS equipment and services. The study features an IMS vendor scorecard and service provider feature wish-lists for IMS products, including Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Call Session Control Function (CSCF), Application Server, Media Resource Function (MRF), and Breakout Gateway Control Function (BGCF) products.

Other highlights from the study:

--  Interoperability between different types of next gen voice and IMS
    equipment was the only obstacle rated by more than half the respondents as
    a "strong barrier" to deploying IMS
--  When asked what kind of new IMS-enabled service respondents would like
    to offer by and after 2009, FMC was the clear leader
--  3GPP IMS leads the list of reference architectures respondents' VoIP
    networks are based on now, increasing to about 3/4 of respondents by 2009
--  In a series of questions asking service providers to rate Alcatel-
    Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia Siemens, Nortel, and Sonus, those
    familiar with the vendors rated NEC highest for management, price-to-
    performance ratio, financial stability, and service and support
--  Roughly 1/4 of respondents have already installed Ericsson MRFs in
    their networks
--  Broadsoft dominates the field of deployed application server
    manufacturers
    

Download study highlights from Infonetics' online portal at www.infonetics.com (see Service Provider VoIP and IMS area). For sales, contact Larry Howard, vice president, at larry@infonetics.com or +1 (408) 583-3335.

Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete more effectively.