IP multimedia subsystem deployment will accomplish network convergence at a time when network operators are looking for greater flexibility and efficiency — not to mention cost-effectiveness — in how they can deliver multiple services to different kinds of devices — hopefully all registered to the same customer they already own.

For many operators, IMS spending will be an extension of the voice-over-IP (VoIP) investments they have already made. Infonetics Research recently forecast that total spending on IMS and VoIP equipment will be almost $7 billion by 2010.

IMS adoption will coincide with and support the parallel trend of service convergence. Fixed/mobile convergence (FMC) already is starting to happen (see “FMC By the Numbers”), and Analysys Research U.K. (see “FMC and Dual-Mode Adoption“) predicts that FMC acceptance will increase to create a service market worth more than $18 billion by 2012. Still, technologies allowing service convergence to happen may continue to shift. Only a small part of that $18 billion will come from services delivered through dual-mode handsets.

FMC BY THE NUMBERS

69,000

Number of users estimated to have signed up for Orange's Unik dual-mode fixed/mobile convergence service within the first three months after launch. ¹

400,000

Estimated number of FMC users worldwide at the end of 2006. ²

$130

Approximate price of a femtocell, which provides in-home cellular coverage and doesn't a require dual-mode phone. ¹

$9 BILLION

Estimated total from FMC services by 2011. ²

Sources: ¹ Analysys Research U.K
² Pyramid Research