IMS remains elusive, though LTE provides hope

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in our September Special Edition, Behind the Scenes, a focus on integrated subscriber and network management systems. To download the complete Special Edition, click here.
By Dan Meyer
For years telecommunication operators waxed poetically about how their divergent technologies would someday come together as one under the auspice of an awkwardly named savior known as IP-Multimedia Subsystems.
This technology was going to allow an operator’s wireless and wired network talk to one another in a common language that would allow for a simpler back-office work environment as well as allow customers to seamlessly transfer their content and services across their myriad of devices regardless of connection.
In its most basic form, IMS is a platform that will allow for data sessions to be exchanged across telecom properties. For example, a video call could begin in a customer’s home using a wired connection, seamlessly transfer to their mobile device when they venture outside of the home and then continue uninterrupted as the users moved into a corporate environment’s wired or wireless enterprise network.
Research firms have been forecasting strong growth for the market for more than five years, forecasts that continue to show robust adoption of the technology.
According to Infonetics Research, the worldwide IMS equipment market, including IMS core equipment and application servers, surged 33.5% between the first and second quarters of this year. The firm noted Huawei Technologies Co., L.M. Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks as having recorded solid IMS sales, while Alcatel-Lucent and ZTE Corp. posted the largest revenue growths from Q1 to Q2.
Infonetics Research said it expects the “lumpy” nature of the IMS equipment market to continue for the next 18 to 24 months “as large operators place purchase orders in a single quarter and new IMS deals hit sporadically.”
ABI Research noted that $8.4 billion was spent on IMS in 2009, a number that is expected to rise to $17.3 billion by 2014.
Slow adoption
But, carriers for the most part have only slowly (very slowly) been moving towards IMS deployments.
Beyond some partial IMS deployments by carriers such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and France’s Orange, analysts have noted that the slow uptake has been mostly due to a real lack of need for IMS to this point.
“From the perspective of the promise that it held never happened, never got off the ground, the business case never worked,” said Brian Partridge, VP at Yankee Group. “This is especially true on the mobile side where IMS has been less of a story. The business case has not been compelling. VoIP is not viable for mobile today. You need IMS to enable rich communication services, but at this point it’s a set of services in search of a business case.”
AT&T has perhaps been one of the most aggressive in the IMS space, having deployed the technology for its U-verse offering that allows customers to integrate services via a broadband connection powering in-home Internet, television and wired phone services. The company has also began to further integrate its wireless service into the mix, most recently through applications for select smart phones that allow customers to control their television digital video recorder or watch programs on their mobile device.
Some have noted that the lack of action on behalf of mobile has been due to a lack of network capacity to handle the services IMS is looking to sink its teeth into.
“The biggest gating factor for IMS in the mobile space has been the size of the network pipe,” explained Joe McGarvey, principal analyst for IP services infrastructure at Current Analysis Inc. “That might sound rudimentary, but that has been the case.”
Another concern for carriers looking to deploy IMS is that the standardization of cross network offerings will make it easier for third-party providers to develop and applications that they could then sell directly to consumers, bypassing the carrier in the revenue stream. A number of infrastructure providers, including Alcatel-Lucent, have developed ways around this issue by developing application enablement platforms that will allow carriers to get in on offering IMS-compliant applications to consumers similar to how Apple Inc. has become a enabler through its App Store.
IMS via VoLTE
Current Analysis’ McGarvey also noted that on the wired side, IMS has been used mostly as a way to overlay a Voice over Internet Protocol application allowing companies to offer voice services over their data networks. But, for mobile that has not yet been needed as 2G and 3G networks are based on voice-focused technologies and thus there has been no need to turn to VoIP.
That, however, is expected to change once so-called “4G” networks start coming online. Infonetics Research and others expect LTE-based wireless networks to be a boon for the IMS market.
With all the hype surrounding LTE technology, you would think it was pre-ordained to take over the telecom industry. However, until recently there was no set standard for how carriers could transport plain old voice services (you remember voice don’t you?) over the highest of high-tech networks.
Earlier this year, the GSMA unveiled its Voice over LTE initiative that is set to standardize how carriers can transport voice services over LTE networks in order to ensure interoperability between networks and a consistent level of voice quality. The initiative takes advantage of the previously announced One Voice Initiative, with GSMA’s broad influence bringing a greater level of industry support.
The GSMA said the initial initiative has the support of more than 40 companies, including some big names like AT&T Inc., China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom AG, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Telefonica, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone Group plc. In addition, the initiative has support from the largest infrastructure players like Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Nokia Corp., Huawei and Qualcomm Inc. “It was our belief that it was a necessity,” said Verizon Communications Inc. EVP and CTO Dick Lynch. “Voice is nothing more than just an application. We have that standard now set.” Lynch’s comments echoed those by AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega, who speaking during the 2009 CTIA event, said that voice was just another application that would run on its LTE network. The initiative also appears to be a boost for the fledgling IMS movement that seems to have stalled due to concerns about cost and complexity.
“We have seen lots of IMS deployments on the fixed side and it made sense to bring that to mobile,” said Hakan Eriksson, CTO at Ericsson, at this year’s Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. It also solidifies IMS as the de facto standard for telecom operators looking to launch VoLTE as well as converging fixed and mobile plans. “The case for other than IMS is overstated and short term,” Lynch said. “If you think about what IMS is capable of doing over the long term and think of companies with both wireline and wireless networks, it makes sense.” Lynch also deftly sidestepped a question about the possibility of the carrier partnering with Skype Ltd. to provide an interim VoIP solution on its network. “I am not going to rule anything out,” Lynch said in response to possible use of a Skype solution. “We are serving 91 million voice users on our existing CDMA network. We have invested a lot of money in that network providing great service.”
Current Analysis’ McGarvey added that he is not surprised carriers are remaining cautious on IMS as well as looking to keep their options open.
“For IMS there has always been the question of perspective,” McGarv
ey explained. “For purists or those that think Internet-based soluti
ons are the answer, IMS is seen as just getting in the way and provides a way to provoke restrictions on access. They see it as a means to control. But from the carriers’ perspective, IMS is seen as a way for them to maintain control or at least have a say as to what is traveling over their networks.”
Despite the continued trepidation, analysts noted that the fact that carriers are continuing to talk about IMS is a welcome sign for network infrastructure providers, as well as for analyst forecasts.
“IMS vendors such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent have been waiting a long time for this,” said ABI principal analyst Aditya Kaul. “They’ve invested huge sums in IMS and haven’t been recouping that investment as they thought they would. … IMS vendors are already reporting a definite increase in RFPs and sales.”
In the meantime, IMS remains in a holding pattern still waiting for a business case to propel its adoption.