IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) to be Widely Adopted by Mobile Operators

U.K. firm Analysys Consulting recently issued a report predicting "IMS (the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem), the latest so-called “must have” technology, will be widely adopted within the mobile operator community within five years."

According to Wikipedia, the definition of IMS "is an open, standardised, operator friendly, next generation networking (NGN) multi-media architecture for mobile and fixed IP services. It's a VoIP implementation based on a 3GPP variant of SIP, and runs over the standard Internet protocol (IP). It's used by telecom operators in NGN networks (which combine voice and data in a single packet switched network), to offer network controlled multimedia services."

Key highlights of the report are:

• No strong case for short-term IMS deployment to support services such as push-to-talk and video sharing
• IMS will be widely deployed by mobile operators within five years, enabling faster and more efficient service delivery and helping to accelerate fixed–mobile substitution
• IMS enables service and network convergence, but adoption will be constrained by commercial, technical and regulatory issues