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

CAMPBELL, CA–(EMWNews – August 21, 2008) – 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

[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.