The European telecommunications landscape is undergoing a revolution that is transforming the industry. End User (both consumer and corporate) needs are driving this revolution as they look for the services they use on their PCs at home to be available on the move via their 3G mobile handsets, with consistency of experience, taking into account the quality of the service delivered and resulting in a single unified bill at the end of the month. Added to that, new technologies are enabling a whole host of devices that combine communications with video, text, graphics, sound and more.
As a result, the battle for the attention of customers immersed in a multi-channel content rich environment has never been more intense and each participant in the creation and delivery of voice and content services is looking to change the status quo to their benefit.
Network Operators are looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors through the introduction of new services and more extensive service bundling, whilst at the same time defending themselves against the expansion of hosted Internet services, such as Skype and Google, that threaten to reduce them to mere ‘bit pipes’. Content Providers are looking to establish direct relationships with End Users in an effort to leverage maximum value from their brands and improve revenue by removing Network Providers from the mediation and aggregation role they currently fill.
The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) holds the promise of fulfilling many, if not all, of the aspirations of End Users, Network Operators and Content Providers. IMS is a new network architecture and framework that enables the convergence of data, speed and mobile technology over an IP-based infrastructure.
As such, it helps to eliminate the cost and difficulty of creating separate silos for each new service. IMS allows users to easily share content with their peers, be it real-time video, Voice over IP (VoIP) calls, or multi-party games. It was created to be a standardized reference architecture which could be implemented by Network Operators to enable the delivery of next generation services and is becoming the de facto standard for real-time multimedia communication services.
In doing so however, the model of service delivery which it describes has the potential to alter the current industry norms beyond recognition. Although many see this change as inevitable, there are a number of technical challenges to be overcome, and commercial battles to be fought, before IMS can truly be considered a reality.
Atos Origin uses its extensive telecom skills and resources to stay abreast of these challenges. With its intimate knowledge of the marketplace and, with unrivalled consulting skills and systems integration capabilities, it is also best placed to help its clients get the most out of this new generation of network technology.
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