I suppose it's a positive thing that I find myself writing again about the IP multimedia subsystem architecture because it means that there has been a new industry development concerning the technology. In fact, there have been two: Both Cingular and SBC Communications announced this week that Lucent Technologies is providing their IMS platforms.

It's good news for the industry--particularly the IMS sector of the industry--that carriers are comfortable enough with their investments in IMS to acknowledge who their vendors are and how they will be deploying the architecture. It not only provides some much-needed clarity about the role IMS is intended to play in networks, it also legitimizes the architecture and the overall convergence concept that IMS is meant to facilitate.

What has yet to happen is for carriers--SBC and Cingular included--to provide specifics about the types of advanced services they will deploy using the IMS architecture as a launching pad. I'm beginning to think that won't ever happen--at least until those services are commercially launched--and for good reasons. For one, it wouldn't be good for the reputation of IMS or the carriers deploying it to promise certain services that they ultimately are unable, for one reason or another, to deliver. In addition, carriers would be tipping their hands to their competitors if they (or their IMS vendors) talked up the services they were creating on their IMS platforms.

Despite that, news about which carriers are deploying IMS and what companies they're choosing as their vendors represents positive momentum for this emerging technology area. Keep it coming.

E-mail me at jmeyers@primediabusiness.com.