What IMS Promises Enterprises and Carriers

ITworld runs an IDG News Service story on the latest buzzword in telecommunications - Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem or IMS. IMS is an "architecture that defines how IP networks should handle voice calls and data sessions" and can separate "services from the underlying networks that carry them. That way, services such as text messaging, voice mail and file sharing can reside on application servers anywhere and be delivered by multiple wired and wireless service providers."

Joe McGarvey at Current Analysis said, "The subscriber is at the center of the universe now, instead of everything revolving around the network. They're going to see a lot more interesting applications [that will be] introduced a lot more quickly than they are now."

According to David Passmore at Burton Group, SIP could spell doom to IMS. "Long term, I'm not convinced that IMS is going to be successful. Ultimately, fat pipes may win out," Passmore said.'

The article goes on to outline the complexity and challenges ahead for IMS....