Market research firm Infonetics has reported a shift towards mobile deployment of IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS). 

The companys IMS Services Strategies, Product Features, and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey report says that 78 per cent of senior network respondents will have a mobile-specific service by 2013. 

“Our 2011 survey results show that fixed-line VoIP continues to be the primary service deployed over IMS; however, there also is a notable continuing shift toward IMS in the mobile world, evidenced by the rising number of mobile services planned over IMS by 2013,” says Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research. “78 per cent of our respondents will have a mobile-specific service such as mobile messaging, VoLTE (voice over LTE), RCS (Rich Communication Service), and/or VoIP over 3G by 2013, up from 35 per cent today.” 

Indeed, LTE and converged services are the main drivers pushing networks to deploy IP Mulimedia Subsystems (IMS) frameworks, according to the report. 

The research found that barriers to IMS deployment are generally considered to be low. However, the ability to integrate with existing back-end systems were the main concern. 

At least half of the service provider respondents plan to launch RCS, video telephony, and video sharing services over the next two years, according to the report. 

The research looked into drivers for and barriers against migrating to IMS, and gathered data by interviewing purchase-decision makers at 23 service providers with IMS core equipment in their networks. The carriers that took part represent 30 per cent of worldwide telecoms revenue, says Infonetics. 

To purchase the report, contact George Stojsavljevic at Infonetics.