CAMPBELL, CA–(EMWNews – July 23, 2008) – A new study by Infonetics Research that provides a

broad view of service provider thinking and plans for voice over IP, including

service provider perceptions of leading VoIP vendors, names Acme

Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, and Sonus as the “top VoIP equipment

manufacturers,” with Cisco emerging as the most familiar manufacturer.

According to the study, Service Provider Plans for

VoIP, which surveyed service providers in North America, Europe, Asia

Pacific, and Latin America-Caribbean, the top 3 technical challenges these

carriers face are competition, migration to IMS, and capex reduction.

“Service providers are operating in a capped capex environment now —

meaning, generally they purchase equipment only when they need it. There

are some areas in which most carriers are increasing their capex, though:

growth areas tied to additional revenue, such as VoIP,” said Stéphane

Téral, principal analyst at Infonetics for service provider VoIP, IMS, and

mobile infrastructure.

The study is based on formal interviews conducted by Infonetics’ senior

analysts with incumbents, IXCs, competitive operators, vertically

integrated service providers, and specialists. The 85-page study examines

the trends, drivers, barriers, and implementation plans of VoIP service

providers, and features VoIP network architecture plans, a VoIP vendor

scorecard, and service provider feature wish-lists for VoIP products,

including trunk media gateways, softswitches, voice application servers,

media servers, and session border controllers.

Other highlights from the study:

--  40% of respondent service providers don't plan to complete their

    migration to Class 4/tandem switching until after 2009, suggesting they

    have enough capacity to handle international voice traffic growth

--  The top retail VoIP service offered by service providers to their

    residential and business customers is voice over broadband

--  In a series of questions asking service providers to rate Alcatel-

    Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens, Nortel, and Sonus, those

    familiar with the vendors rated Sonus highest for technology, product

    roadmap, security, management, and price-to-performance ratio

--  55% of respondents have already installed Acme Packet's session border

    controllers

    

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

[email protected] 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.