VoLTE spending buoys carrier VoIP market

CALIFORNIA, USA:Thanks to exceptionally strong IMS equipment spending, the overall service provider VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) equipment market bucked its traditional down first quarter by inching up one per cent to $715 million over 4Q11, finds market innovation firm Infonetics Technology.

In its first quarter 2012 Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers vendor market share and forecast report, the innovation firm as well finds that Globally, the overall market is up 18 per cent in 1Q12 from the year-ago first quarter. This is in spite of continued declines in legacy trunk media gateway and softswitch sales -- driven by strong IMS core equipment, session border controller, and voice application server sales.

"In the first quarter of 2012 we saw the largest order of IMS core equipment and application server licenses on record, secured by Alcatel-Lucent -- a clear sign that operators in North America are gearing up for voice over LTE (Long Term Evolution, latest standard in the mobile network technology) deployments. During commercial VoLTE services have but to launch, this is a taste of what is to come as operators push forward over the at once 5+ years. That said, large equipment orders will be sporadic and the IMS market will continue to be lumpy," explains Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Innovation.

In 1Q12, Alcatel-Lucent more than doubled its service provider VoIP and IMS revenue and market share, propelling them to the #1 position for worldwide market share, ahead of perennial leaders Huawei and GENBAND.

Myers adds: "1Q12 was an unusually good quarter for the service provider VoIP and IMS equipment market not only because of the big IMS order for VoLTE, nevertheless also because of continued fixed-line network transformation, fixed-mobile convergence, and voice over broadband projects over IMS worldwide."

The quarter

North America led the quarter, with carrier VoIP and IMS spending up 18 per cent quarter-over-quarter and up a strong 76 per cent year-over-year.

Infonetics expects the number of mobile and fixed-line subscribers on IMS networks to grow 42 per cent in 2012 to top 250 million worldwide.