The IMS equipment market is on track to gain over 50
percent in global revenue in 2011 over 2010.
The global IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) equipment market
grew 46 percent year-over-year in Q3 2011 from Q3 2010.
Nokia Siemens Networks is leading the fast-growing IMS
session control function (CSCF) server market in Q3 2011, followed by Ericsson
and Huawei.
In Q3 2011, 66 percent of global IMS core equipment
revenue was from equipment purchased for fixed-line networks, due to ongoing
fixed-line projects in Europe and Asia Pacific.
In North America only 55 percent of IMS core revenue was
for fixed-line networks, due to continued strength coming from Verizon Wireless
for their LTE deployment.
Home subscriber servers (HSS) continue to benefit from
LTE deployments, as they are being implemented as the core device registering
element within LTE networks, which is having a positive impact on HSS
regardless of voice over LTE (VoLTE) deployments.
In Q3 2011, Asia Pacific was again the largest region for
IMS sales, with 40 percent of total IMS equipment revenue, while North America
posted the strongest quarter, with revenue up 104 percent over Q2 2011.
Large service providers like China Telecom, China Unicom,
and Deutsche Telekom undergo significant Class 5 replacement projects; AT&T
and NTT increase their Class 5 replacements; cable operators such as Comcast
will launch new networks; and wireless operators like Verizon Wireless,
MetroPCS, etc launch IMS for LTE.
IMS market growth rates to continue to follow an atypical
curve as projects ramp and taper and new ones pick up across fixed-line and
mobile networks,” expects Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at
Infonetics Research.
According to Infonetics Research,
two key factors driving IMS deployments are the ability to offer converged services
and LTE network deployment.
While there appear to be no big barriers left to IMS
deployment, indicated by the low numbers of respondents rating any factors
definitely a barrier” in either the 2011 or 2010 editions of Infonetics’
survey, integration with existing back-end systems tops the list.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com