"The introduction of IMS will not be as a big bang but phased. Ideally customers won't even need to know about IMS, but will be able to take advantage of the continual evolution of services and solutions."Richard McCallum, development director at service provider, THUS
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"Sound Bite CMA on IMS"
This gem comes from an ad by ZTE – China's largest listed telecoms manufacturer:
“…………..At its most basic, IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) involves telecom¬munications carriers moving away from leg¬acy technologies such as ATM, Frame Relay and PSTN and over to Internet Protocol (IP) systems. The move to an IP infrastructure means that the carrier can move a wide va¬riety of data traffic across its network, gen¬erating economies of scale, and therefore savings, in both capital and ongoing costs.
IMS not only reduces OPex, but also enhances the carrier's service model. By building an IP network 'walled garden' - providing a complete and attractive range of customer services, IMS enables carri¬ers to resist the threats of low-cost Internet telephony services from the likes of Skype and Vonage.”
Resist the threat?? What are they talking about? But thanks, ZTE, for innocently making it all so clear. Who cares if Tiddler Telecom Ltd denies its customers access to Skype or any other application or service it chooses? Nobody. Who cares if BT or Vodafone do the same? Everybody.
But wait a sec: isn’t there another angle to this? Lucent claims that: “The ability to blend services and applications benefit all carriers and also can lead to beneficial business relationships between carriers. A wireline carrier, for example, can partner with a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) to produce blended services that are available to customers under each partner’s separate brand. In another example, a wireless carrier may partner with a broadband access provider to develop and brand blended services.” In other words, even if IMS doesn’t lock you up in a walled garden, it can and will be used to reduce churn rates by emphasising package pricing (just as BSkyB does). In WH Smith terms, you won’t be able to buy a copy of Angling Times unless you also buy a copy of the Sun.
IMS? Threat or Promise?
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