LTE to drive IMS market to more than double current size, says ABI Research

Revenues from mobile IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) sales are expected to increase more than 100% over the next five years driven by LTE network deployment, according to ABI Research.

Approximately US$8.4 billion was spent on IMS during 2009. According to principal analyst Aditya Kaul, that figure will rise to US$17.3 billion in 2014.

"IMS uptake will be closely associated with the deployment of LTE networks worldwide," said Kaul. "It's all to do with recent progress in standardizing how voice services will be handled within LTE."

Data has been seen as the glamorous "new kid on the block" of mobile services, and LTE has until now been regarded as a largely data-centric set of technologies. Until very recently LTE has not included good voice handling capabilities; yet most operators still earn 70% of their revenues from voice and SMS services. That has been a stumbling-block for LTE.

Now, however, a group of operators and OEMs - AT&T, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson - has agreed on the "one voice profile," a standard that defines a viable solution for voice in LTE. That should encourage more operators to migrate to LTE, with the resulting greater adoption of IMS, said Kaul.

"IMS vendors such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent have been waiting a long time for this," he said. "They've invested huge sums in IMS and haven't been recouping that investment as they thought they would. Now one voice, paired with the completion of the Rich Communication Suite, will drive strong IMS market growth. IMS vendors are already reporting a definite increase in RFPs and sales."

There is one more hurdle for IMS, however: it is complex and expensive. The effort now will be to simplify and reduce cost.