IMS Market Opportunities From Standardization to Implementation: Industry Report

IMS Market Opportunities From Standardization to Implementation

Product Type: Market Research Report
Published by: Pyramid Research
Published: April 2008
Product Code: R8-576

Description

The rapid transformation of network usage and consumer behaviors has telecom service providers in a painful bind. The pressure to innovate is rising, and category distinctions like voice-data, wirelinewireless and fixed-mobile seem positively archaic. The universe of business models — monthly flat tariffs, per-byte charges, advertising fees — is up for grabs. These are the market trends that have given rise to IP Multimedia System (IMS), a service delivery architecture that is, paradoxically, both nascent and embraced broadly by both service providers and infrastructure vendors.

There is plenty of controversy about fundamental issues surrounding IMS. What, exactly, is the value proposition for service providers to adopt the architecture: Reducing Capex or Opex? Increasing revenue? Where does legacy infrastructure fit? Will standards ever mature? The report IMS Market Opportunities: From Standardization to Implementation examines these questions and many more.

The report analyzes the current status of IMS, evaluating the enabling business and content delivery models. It discusses the timeline for standards development in light of both demand drivers and risk factors, and provides an adoption timeline, on which we base our estimate of the size of the IMS-based services market and forecast revenue for IMS equipment and software. The assumptions underlying all of our estimates are discussed in detail. Key findings we publish in this report include the following:

As standards bodies, platform vendors and service providers reach a critical mass of consensus around architectures, security and broad service categories, IMS standards will mature.
Service innovation will drive IMS equipment demand, but this will be unevenly distributed between markets.
Service providers look at IMS as more than an enabler of innovative Web-based offerings.

Forecasts of developments pay particular attention to the strengths and challenges of individual players, and the report looks at representative service providers such as BT, Com Hem and Vodafone that are pursuing distinct IMS adoption strategies. It also examines the opportunities available to telecom equipment vendors and what they are doing to capitalize on upcoming standards developments, with sections on issues such as market entry opportunities and product functionality. Vendors discussed range from Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson to Acme Packet, Iperia and Redknee.

To cap off the report, a forecast of global revenue from IMS-based services is provided for 2007-2012, as is a forecast of global revenue from IMS-compliant equipment.

Key questions answered

When will IMS standards development reach a level that encourages significant adoption?
Will the adoption drivers be strong enough to create the momentum IMS needs?
What are the issues that stand in the way of a mature set of IMS standards?
How are the various industry bodies dealing with these challenges?
What benefits, if any, will IMS adoption bring to service providers? To vendors?
What strategies are vendors pursuing in their quest to grab this opportunity?
How much revenue will IMS-based services generate by 2012?
How large will the market for IMS-compliant equipment be in 2012?

Table of Contents

Acronyms and abbreviations
Companies mentioned in this report
Executive summary
Section 1: The state of IMS today: 1.1 From obscurity to dominant paradigm; 1.2 A reference architecture; 1.3 Controversies; 1.4 Early-stage complications; 1.5 Interoperability testing adds real-world experience; 1.6 Implementations are predictably diverse
Section 2: The current state of IMS standards: 2.1 Restructuring the standards arena; 2.2 Many forums, a single vision
Section 3: Service provider strategies: 3.1 The new network paradigm; 3.2 Plight of the service provider; 3.3 A services metastrategy; 3.4 IMS adoption strategies: holistic vs. opportunistic
Section 4: Equipment vendor strategies: 4.1 New market orthodoxy, constant market growth; 4.2 Legacy vendors focus on protecting investments; 4.3 New entry opportunities; 4.4 The product functionality challenge; 4.5 Vendor profiles

Section 5: Resolution to the IMS Standards Debate in 2009 Will Unleash Significant Opportunity for Service and Equipment Revenue Growth

5.1 New releases will bring IMS to a pivotal point — stability

5.2 Service revenue gathers momentum

Definitions

5.3 Equipment revenue

Definitions

Related resources

Table of exhibits

Exhibit 1: Overview of IMS architecture

Exhibit 2: The discrete functional components of each service layer

Exhibit 3: Principal IMS standards organizations

Exhibit 4: Common IMS — some key standards

Exhibit 5: Key issues of Common IMS

Exhibit 6: IMS market maturity, demand drivers and risk factors

Exhibit 7: Telefónica’s global service strategy

Exhibit 8: Representative IMS adopters by strategy segment

Exhibit 9: BT 21CN architecture

Exhibit 10: BEA Systems’ IMS ecosystem

Exhibit 11: Empirix IMS product functionality mapping

Exhibit 12: Alcatel-Lucent

Exhibit 13: Cisco Systems

Exhibit 14: Ericsson

Exhibit 15: Nokia Siemens Networks

Exhibit 16: Nortel

Exhibit 17: Acme Packet

Exhibit 18: BEA Systems

Exhibit 19: Huawei

Exhibit 20: Iperia

Exhibit 21: Italtel

Exhibit 22: RadiSys

Exhibit 23: Redknee

Exhibit 24: Sonus Networks

Exhibit 25: Stratus Technologies

Exhibit 26: Veraz Networks

Exhibit 27: Global service revenue, IMS-enabled and non IMS-enabled, 2006-2012

Exhibit 28: Growth in IMS systems revenue globally 2006-2012

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