Mobile SIP to Surpass IMS?

Talking about IMS always stirs up a discussion on how successful it is. When the CTO of Cbeyond says mobile SIP will ultimately beat IMS, he must be looking for a fight.

In a column for TMC, Chris Gatch freely admits he never was an IMS lover and says the standard is on "life support" and it needs to be killed.  IMS is too complex, pumped up by too much marketing hype, and an idea promoted by the large incumbent carriers, just like other technologies of yesteryear like ATM (the protocol, not your money machine) and ISDN.

With true mobile data networks rollout out from Clearwire and others, wireless networks are being optimized for data and quality of service; voice becomes an application with special needs, not the application that dominations the construction of the network. Once those data networks are turned up, SIP and VoIP will move smoothly into mobile; there's already movement in the FMC/Mobile UC space.

IMS will end up influencing future IP and VOIP networks with useful concepts such as the HSS (Home Subscriber Server), but the complexity of IMS is likely to fade as people gravitate to the simplicity of IP.

For more:
- Read Gatch's call to war on Mobile SIP beating IMS

Related articles:
Is IMS Necessary? asks Sue Marek
Andrew Seybold: Intro to IMS--Simplifying the network