New Report Helps Mobile Operators Assess The Value of IMS
March 19, 2003
The UMTS Forum has issued a new report that addresses the technical
and service issues facing mobile operators as they consider the
business implications of upgrading their Third Generation networks
to support IMS: the 'IP Multimedia Subsystem' that promises the
integration of real-time and non-real-time IP-based multimedia communications.
The full version of UMTS Forum Report 27, 'Strategic Considerations
for IMS - the 3G Evolution', is available exclusively to Members
of The UMTS Forum. An introduction and overview is also available
free of charge to non-Members.
Based upon the clear direction from the mobile standards community
and evidence that all current development work in the fixed environment
is IP-based, it would appear that an 'all-IP' network is inevitable.
Therefore, it would seem that the critical deployment question for
mobile operators is when and how to deploy IP and IMS, not whether
or not it is financially justified to deploy it at all. Given the
unique market, regulatory, and technology issues faced by each operator,
this report illuminates many of the critical macro factors associated
with IMS deployment and provides an approach for further individual
operator evaluation.
While market forces demonstrate that IMS functionality is desirable
and necessary, current market reality makes deciding when to deploy
problematic for a number of reasons:
- Uncertainty regarding service adoption: End user adoption of
new mobile data services has been slow.
- Standards: Some of the required IMS standards are still being
developed or finalized.
- Investment costs: Cost of deploying IMS or upgrading an existing
mobile network to IMS.
- Strategic considerations: The interoperability of IMS may be viewed
as a competitive threat (e.g. third party application providers
and VoIP).
Even for mobile operators committed to deployment of an IMS-based
IP network, the timing and scale of such deployment must be determined
and the additional cost of IMS have to be carefully considered.
The purpose of this new study is therefore to:
- Develop a flexible cost analysis methodology that can used to
study a range of networks with different architecture, size and
configuration.
- Use this methodology to assess high-level relationships between
different IMS deployment strategies.
- Analyse the 3G revenues associated with IMS based on the UMTS
Forum's 3G service categories and the same bounded revenue forecasting
methodology used for the UMTS 3G revenue and subscriber forecasts.
- Use this methodology to assess different contributions to IMS
service revenue and their timing.
- Identify scenarios that represent clear deployment choices that
an operator might consider in terms of level of deployment investment
and timing of market entry.
- Discuss the relative service, cost, revenue, and strategic implications
for these options.
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3G Motorola A920
