IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) are seen to be one of the core components that will enable carriers to offer targeted services of the future. In order to ward off the effects of OTT competitive solutions, carriers are looking to IMS combined with RCS (Rich Communication Suite (News - Alert)) and VoIP to keep them in a leadership position in communication service provisioning.

In the recent IMS/VoLTE Competitive Assessment, ABI Research examined implications for IMS for worldwide in light of pending VoLTE deployment and insights for GSMA VoLTE and RCS. This assessment is helpful for network operators to understand their options for IMS and the Evolved Voice Core, raise vendor and investor awareness and help IMS add-on companies consider their roadmaps.

Ericsson (News - Alert), a provider of mobile and fixed networks, multimedia solutions and telecom services, was rated as the overall leader with respect to innovation and implementation. Ericsson's large cache of IMS and VoLTE patents, industry leadership in interoperability testing and market share firmly places it in the top position.

Image via ABI Research (News - Alert)

The Innovation assessment reflects a weighted measure of patents, HW/SW implementation, E2E VoLTE and small network support, with Ericsson leading the rankings, followed by Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) and Nokia Siemens Networks. The patent portfolios of Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent are an indicator of their innovative activity.

Nokia Siemens Networks shows early leadership in virtualization technology with its Liquid Net and Liquid Core portfolio.

Implementation assessment examines market share, global and regional deployment, VoLTE trial activity and LTE (News - Alert)/EPC footprint. Again the rankings are Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens Networks. This part of the assessment shows more diversity among the vendors and different customers may value things differently. Market share and geographical diversity are large discriminators.

"Ericsson has been the IMS leader from the starting gate, and this assessment affirms that position," said Joe Hoffman, principal analyst for mobile networks, in a statement, "but their competitors are charging hard as the field makes the turn into the IMS / VoLTE backstretch. Every vendor in this race has a proposition that operators will value according to their needs, and there is still much ground to cover before the finish line."

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