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I 've often felt that IMS is pigeon-holed as just another iteration of Next Generation Networks (NGNs), driven by VoIP. But that’s just my impression, so I decided to look up the definition of IMS in Wikipedia:
“The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a standardized Next Generation Networking (NGN) architecture for telecom operators that want to provide mobile and fixed multimedia services. It uses a Voice-over-IP (VoIP) implementation based on a 3GPP standardized implementation of SIP, and runs over the standard Internet Protocol (IP). Existing phone systems (both packet-switched and circuit-switched) are supported.”
– Wikipedia, 18th March, 2006!
So, it’s not just me. IMS is widely viewed as the avenue to VoIP (define - news - alert), using the SIP protocol. And that, in my opinion is far too narrow a focus. Don’t get me wrong; VoIP will be a very important service on IMS, and SIP is without a doubt the VoIP protocol of choice. Yet, if in several years we suddenly wake up and find IMS networks successfully delivering VoIP using SIP — but little else — IMS will have been a failure.
I can’t help but think about what that definition emphasizes: technology. It says, in effect, “…we’ll offer exactly the same commoditized service, but use cool new technology.” That’s a worry.
Replacing circuit switched voice with VoIP, and replacing SS7 with SIP does absolutely nothing to fix the underlying ills and threats to our industry. It doesn’t generate new services, new revenues, differentiation, or faster time to market. In some cases, such as broadband fixed networks, VoIP offers a significant benefit in the form of lower facilities maintenance costs, so we can expect cable, DSL, FTTx, and other broadband players to migrate to VoIP for bundled “double play” and “triple play” offers, where there are significant economies of scope for the second and third service to ride on a common IP facility. Yet in others, such as cellular networks, it will likely raise costs through VoIP’s inherent spectral inefficiency. And in cellular networks, spectrum costs matter. A lot.
The value of IMS can be summed up, or at least grouped, into a few main benefits:
1. Richer, more personalized services.
2. Faster time-to-market for new services.
3. Multimedia or “blended” services that transcend the simple voice model.
4. Network convergence — allowing seamless mobility across heterogeneous networks such as fixed, mobile, broadband, etc.
5. Support for third-party content and services — and, therefore, a vastly expanded universe of potential revenue streams.
These five “macro benefits” all contribute to the real value of IMS — generating new sources of revenue from new, compelling, and differentiated services. We’re already seeing the commoditization of voice. Next, as higher speed DSL, FTTx, and wireless build out, HSD and video will increasingly come under price competition as well. This makes it essential for IMS to deliver more services, and for it to deliver differentiation at the service level, thus minimizing pure price competition.
Fortunately, market numbers tell an optimistic story if we look beyond VoIP. While traditional operators rely on call/connection and other fees for nearly 100 percent of their revenues, new-era service providers such as Google and Yahoo! do not. Cannacord Capital, for instance, estimates that fees account for only 24 percent of these “new era” players’ revenues, with marketing and digital merchandising (e.g., digital content) representing the other 76 percent. So there’s huge upside for the communications industry, as long as we set our sights broadly. Furthermore, research by Yankee Group and Vodafone (UK) reinforce the economic value of content and advanced services by documenting that:
1. Most consumers want to buy more services than they are typically offered; and
2. When they purchase multiple services from any single operator, net out-churn decreases.
Digital content is one
of the fastest growing revenue opportunities
in mobile and broadband telecoms today.
Simply put, operators can grow their revenues AND maintain better market share AND reduce customer acquisition costs by innovating and providing their subscriber base an ever growing array of new, personalized, and unique services and content.
IMS is well positioned to deliver these services. Setting aside technical protocols, the basic concept of IMS is to replace “stovepipe” service creation with open, modular, multimedia “service building blocks” that add value and allow rapid development of new services. Examples include building blocks for charging, presence, session control, shared subscriber data, policy, mobility, authorization/authentication, and myriad others. In this sense the value of IMS is in its modular building blocks, in its focus on intelligence and value for IP networks, and in the fact that it is standardized.
A few examples can illustrate the benefits of IMS service enablers:
Digital Content
Digital content is one of the fastest growing revenue opportunities in mobile and broadband telecoms today and is expected to accelerate over the next few years. A well-conceived IMS implementation provides both policy/authorization building blocks and a very sophisticated Online Charging Function that enable operators to participate in the value chain, and to add new content, prices, and promotions easily.
Fixed Mobile Convergence
Customers and enterprises have responded very favorably to the latest proposals to provide fixed-mobile convergence using IMS to deliver a seamless mobility experience across broadband (often WiFi) and cellular networks. Some proposals utilize a dual-mode phone, while others allow a call to be transferred to a broadband SIP client (e.g., a PC, a dedicated SIP phone). These schemes provide an attractive combination of better coverage, lower costs and prices, and potentially better quality — and allow for market share gains as well as reduced churn. IMS provides several building blocks for this service, including the Call Continuity Control Function (CCCF), as well as VoIP and QoS functions.
Personalization
In primary market research, consumers and enterprises consistently indicate demand for services that simplify their communications experience by personalizing when, how and in what format calls and messages are delivered. This can involve presence-driven re-routing; black and white lists, content filtering, parental control of usage, in-network PIMs that synchronize across devices, and authorization/authentication that eliminate unique passwords and logins for various networks and services. Many of these are enabled relatively simply (compared to yesterday’s stovepipe services) using IMS service building blocks.
The success of IMS then, should be measured against its ability to deliver new services; personalized services; to enable access to and sale of third-party content; and to offer these services across a range of networks (including the nearly ubiquitous “legacy” cellular network). Only then can operators progressively generate more revenue, more loyalty and derive more customer AND shareholder value from the expensive investments they have made in 3G, broadband and other modern IP and CS networks.
So my advice is this: Don’t think technology. Don’t think voice. Think rich, ubiquitous, personalized services. Then we can all think about happy customers and shareholders, and that would be pretty nice to think about for a change!
Grant Lenahan is vice president and strategist, IMS Service Delivery Solutions at Telcordia Technologies, Inc. For more information, visit www.telcordia.com. (news - alerts)
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