Some of the biggest news coming out of the mobile market right now is the proliferation of voice-over-LTE and voice-over-Wi-Fi services. Companies such as Verizon (News - Alert) and AT&T are beginning to wire cities and next-generation smartphones for high-speed data transfer that will support advanced audio and video. The next wave of mobile communications breakthroughs are coming on the shoulders of IP-based communications. Infonetics Research (News - Alert) reports that the market is growing at a modest pace compared to last year but is still moving in an upward direction.
Infonetics' latest report, “Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers,” discusses the Q3 2014 market share of various vendors within the voice-over-IP (VoIP) and IP multimedia subsystems (IMS) equipment market and their relationships with global content providers. It also predicts the future of the market for coming quarters -- a future which Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, unified communications, and IMS at Infonetics, says will largely be driven by VoLTE and wireline services.
“We expected growth in the service provider VoIP and IMS equipment market to slow this year as large operators such as AT&T (News - Alert), Verizon, and NTT DoCoMo commercially launch voice over LTE (VoLTE) and utilize capacity on IMS networks. Following a tremendous 2013, revenue growth has tapered in 2014, though is still positive, with the market up 5 percent in the third quarter from a year ago,” Myers said. “VoLTE deployments will remain the most important driver, though wireline is still making strong contributions.”
The VoIP and IMS market grew globally year-over-year from 3Q 2013 to 3Q 2014 by five percent to approximately $1 billion. Several product segments within the market also posted year-over-year growth; those segments were soft switches, voice application servers, CSCF servers, and session border controllers.
Part of the prediction for coming quarter is Infonetics’ expectation that additional operators will begin setting up shop in Asia Pacific and Europe in 2015. Additional operators will add to the total 11 operators across the globe that offer VoLTE services. Infonetics specifically mentions Apple as a key driver of change with its support of VoLTE and VoWi-Fi. T-Mobile (News - Alert) has also made its way into the conversation with its adoption of smartphone models which can access both Wi-Fi and cellular signals and cross between those channels when calls are in progress.
Verizon's Advanced Calling is another prime example of how service providers are taking advantage of the new technology. TMC (News - Alert) even recently reported that Verizon and AT&T will partner to make their VoLTE services compatible with one another. This sort of pairing is indicative of a future for the VoIP and IMS market that could continue to shine bright for some time. In order for global technologies to take off, they require a certain amount of cooperation between market giants. Equipment manufacturers for VoLTE and IMS feed off of that cooperation by advancing their own products and allowing big players, Verizon and AT&T, for instance, to install them in massive proportions.
The market here may have slowed after its initial surge in 2013, but that does not mean its growth cannot remain steady for some time. If consumers find new data technologies easy to use and beneficial to their lives, they will continue to demand such technologies from their service providers and mobile device manufacturers. VoLTE and VoWi-Fi are in their early stages and are waiting to take a lead role.