IMS shifts from hype to converged services stage

IMS may no longer be an over-hyped telecom acronym, but an Infonetics survey reveals service providers are making progress with their IMS deployment plans. In its IMS Plans: Global Service Provider Survey, Infonetics revealed that 80 percent of the service providers it polled are running fixed voice over IMS right now or will by 2011, making fixed-line VoIP service the mainstay of IMS rollouts. During the same period, Infonetics found that more than half of the service provider respondents are planning on deploying video telephony and converged mobile/fixed-line services. Mobile services will be a big focus for IMS deployments. Over the next two years, service providers will deploy three types of IMS-based mobile services: FMC, mobile presence and mobile messaging.

"Our 2009 IMS service provider survey indicates that the IMS market is advancing from early-stage services to the next phase," said Diane Myers, Infonetics Research [1]'s directing analyst for service provider VoIP and IMS. "The two most important indicators are the higher number of service providers planning to offer services beyond fixed-line voice--such as video and mobile services--by 2011, and the shift in IMS deployment drivers, which include the opportunity to offer converged services, deploy new applications and services, and consolidate networks."

For more:
- here's the Infonetics release [2]