IMS Service Strategies, Product Features, and Vendor Leadership (2013 Edition)

IMS SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

•  The transition from fixed-line VoIP to mobile services over IMS is happening, but in a measured fashion

•  Key factors driving survey respondents’ migration to IMS are LTE network deployments and IMS’s reputation as a global standard for network infrastructure and services

•  Among those interviewed, there were no overwhelming barriers to deploying IMS; the main issues are business oriented, with a smattering of technical concerns such as integration with existing OSS/BSS

•  The rise of virtualization and NFV within carrier networks is extending to IMS, with respondents expecting deployments utilizing shared virtual machines to grow from zero currently to 67% by 2015

•  When asked who they consider to be the top IMS infrastructure vendors, respondents most often named Ericsson, Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks 

•  Ericsson is also the leading CSCF and HSS vendor among respondent operators in terms of products installed and vendors under evaluation for future purchases

ABOUT THE SURVEY

Infonetics' 32-page IMS survey is based on interviews with incumbent, mobile, competitive, and cable operators from around the world with IMS core equipment in their networks. Infonetics asked operators about IMS migration drivers and barriers; single/multiple IMS cores; plans for IMS services (VoLTE, residential voice over broadband, hosted IP voice, business trunking, etc.); and CSCF and HSS installations, features and manufacturers. The report includes a vendor scorecard with operator ratings of IMS infrastructure vendors (Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, BroadSoft, Ericsson, Genband, Huawei, Mavenir, Nokia Siemens Networks, ZTE).

TOP TAKEAWAYS .......................................................................................................... 1

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 2

FD-LTE RULES THE WORLD .................................................................................................................... 3

W-CDMA to HSPA+ to LTE network remains mainstream migration scenario ........................................4

LTE-Advanced trials are going gangbusters .....................................................................................6

VOICE SERVICES OVER THE LTE RAN ARE GAINING SERIOUS MOMENTUM ................................................ 7

IMS is the universal VoLTE platform ...................................................................................................8

2G and 3G service shutdown is not on the agenda .........................................................................10

Single radio voice call continuity (SR-VCC) availability lost a bit of momentum . .....................................11

. . . And LTE data and voice roaming is in limbo ...............................................................................11

INCREASING ARPU IS NO LONGER AMONG CHIEF LTE DRIVERS; WE’RE BACK TO BASIC LONG-TIME DRIVERS! ................................................................................... 13

Asked in an open-ended question, the drivers are similar and interrelated......................................15

Barriers continue to wane, only VoLTE immaturity pops up and that is a core issue .........................17

Standard compliance is a key LTE requirement . . . ........................................................................18

. . . because use of and investment in current cellular data technology remains steady ......................20

MME SCALABILITY WITH HIGH NUMBER OF SESSIONS REMAINS TOP EPC EQUIPMENT FEATURE .............. 22

eNodeB are expected to feature high throughput and high capacity .................................................23

MACROCELLS RULE AND HETNET CONTINUES TO GATHER MOMENTUM ................ 25

Even for 3G network expansion, thinking is spread across HetNet variants .........................................26

ERICSSON, NOKIA SIEMENS NETWROKS ARE PERCEIVED AS TOP LTE EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS ....... 28

Again, manufacturers installed differ from our 1Q13 market share findings .........................................29

Service provider familiarity with manufacturers ............................................................................31

Price performance is manufacturers’ chief selection criterion ..........................................................32

Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Huawei are seen as strong players ........................................33

BOTTOM LINE ..................................................................................................................... 35

METHODOLOGY AND DEMOGRAPHICS ........................................................................... 36

Respondents are influential in the purchase decision . . . ...............................................................36

. . . and account for 36% of worldwide revenue and 41% of capex .....................................................37

Mobile operators and incumbents are predominant, and the geographic distribution is more balanced than in previous years ....................................................................................................................38

Year to year sample comparison ...................................................................................................39

Like last year, the sample is skewed toward 3GPP .........................................................................39