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According to Infonetics Research, the worldwide service provider next-generation voice and IMS equipment market rose by six percent in 2Q06 to $772.3 million, following a 6 percent decline in 1Q. Revenues from this sector will more than double between 2005 and 2009, moving from $2.5 billion to $5.8 billion.
To become reality, carriers need to re-evaluate their back office OSS systems, and bring in a charging tool that will let service providers track premium services, and transactions that involve third-party content providers. Multivendor environment creates new needs for the OSS.
The drive to cooperative competition:
Ever since deregulation, telecom has been one of the most intensely competitive segments in the marketplace. Telcos are, after all, in business to make money, and in business to make more money than the other guy. Traditionally, that doesn’t involve a large degree of cooperation. The nature of capitalism in general, is to keep an edge over the other guy, to have something that he doesn’t, and yes, sometimes to even put him out of business entirely. Switching from the PSTN to an all-IP infrastructure, something that arguably will take many years, will require a major shift in thinking.
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"Telcos are, after all, in business to make money..." |
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Still today, the PSTN remains dominant, but it’s only a matter of time before its inevitable decline wreaks havoc on the telecom industry and on incumbent fixed operators. A report from Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that PSTN voice revenue will decline from $600 billion in 2005, to $500 billion by 2011—while broadband services (such as VoIP) increase dramatically at the same time. This trend will be especially noticeable in Asia, where fixed communications faces more serious and immediate competition.
It’s clear that manufacturers and carriers alike will have to forge alliances to survive in the world of IMS. Some suggestions from Current Analysis include not only participating in interoperability events like the MSF event whenever possible, but also for equipment makers “need to leverage the opportunity to establish relationships with participating carriers. At the very least, equipment makers will get a first hand taste of the practices and procurement procedures of several major carriers.” And for telecom equipment makers, they “should forge relationships with makers of complementary equipment. Small vendors |
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When all’s said and done, creating an infrastructure of cooperation isn’t really rocket science, and technically, the possibility has been there with us for some time. The greatest challenge lies ahead in changing the corporate culture to one of cooperation between competitors, and in moving forward with changing our old paradigm of the public switched telephone network. The first implementations for the most part, involve IMS running alongside traditional PSTN, although there are a handful of pure IP installations coming out. There’s no doubt that the migration to a new, all-IP framework will be gradual, but it’s nonetheless inevitable.
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with standalone solutions should partner with similar suppliers, creating a turnkey solution that they can offer as hybrid that combines the benefit of a single-vendor solution with the benefits of a best of breed approach.” And lastly, “all equipment makers building IMS-based equipment need to adopt a mentality of mutual interest with their customers.”
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