A recent poll by Comptel Corporation (OMX Helsinki: CTL1V), the leading vendor of dynamic Operations Support Software (OSS), found that operators around the globe have still not fully decided on a migration path to IMS. The poll, conducted at Comptel’s annual User Group forum, showed that while a third (32%) of operators worldwide had decided to move towards an IMS architecture within the next two years, another third (32%) had made no plans with regards to adoption.

The remaining service providers envisaged a deployment in 2 to 4 years (27%) or beyond (6%). The spot poll surveyed the opinions of operators from Europe, Asia-Pacific, East Africa and the Americas , and was conducted at Comptel’s annual user group summit which included over 50 representatives from service providers worldwide.

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is the platform that’s being heralded as the lynchpin of next generation networks. It’s a means for delivering a variety of communications services to telecom operators’ customers regardless of their access network. It is also a major driver behind the convergence of wireline and wireless networks, providing a technology-agnostic mechanism for voice and multimedia based services.

Ms. Arnhild Schia, Senior Vice President Market Development for Comptel, commented: ‘Our annual Comptel User Group provides an excellent forum for us to receive feedback from our customers on our products and services. Beyond that, however, it provides a great opportunity to get expert opinion and industry insights from senior technicians at major operators from all over the globe.”

A recent Analysys Research report (‘Seizing the Opportunities from Enterprise Mobility’, July 2007) considered that IMS is a major improvement for cellular (and other) networks, and the enterprise market may offer mobile operators the best chance to benefit from it. However, the report’s authors Alastair Brydon and Mark Heath, added that ‘deployment of IMS by mobile operators is at an early stage…and though in principle IMS has many benefits for mobile operators, it has not yet received universal support. Part of the problem is that it is difficult to produce a business case for a generic capability like IMS without being specific about the services that it will support, and compelling service propositions have not yet been forthcoming.

Of the regions polled by Comptel, the Americas were unique in having the majority of operators in favour of adopting an IMS architecture in the next 4 years (78%), though none of those envisaged this happening in the next two years. In contrast, there was a much wider degree of contention in Asia-Pacific and Europe with opinion divided between those who intend to migrate within the next two years (Asia-Pac – 50%, Europe – 47%) and those who have not yet decided on whether they will migrate at all (Asia-Pac – 50%, Europe – 41%).

Schia continued: ‘It seems that the market is splitting into those operators who are confident that IMS will help deliver new revenue streams within the next few years, and those that are adopting a wait and see approach, a finding which seems to be mirrored by Analysys’ report. That said, Comptel is involved in IMS deployments on 3 continents right now. So whatever the adoption rate, we are ready to deliver timely solutions.”

About Comptel Corporation
Comptel provides Comptel Dynamic OSS™ solutions, offering service-enabling mediation, charging and fulfillment capabilities to telecom service providers. Comptel’s expertise in inventory, provisioning and activation, mediation and charging empowers service providers to focus on delivering the innovative services. Established in 1986, Comptel had a turnover of EUR 80 million and around 550 employees in 2006. Comptel has provided solutions to around 260 customers in 85 countries worldwide. For more information: www.comptel.com.