Softswitch

The carrier VoIP/IMS market has struggled over the past five years, feeling the impact of the recession in 2008. The hit to overall revenue took its toll for a solid three years until relief arrived in 2012. Now, according to Infonetics (News - Alert) Research, this market segment has finally enjoyed a positive year.

As part of the research firm’s Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers report, findings in the VoIP/IMS market show a 9-percent growth thanks to strong IMS sales. While the market for IMS equipment and applications for LTE (News - Alert) is still young, a small group of operators are placing orders and positively impacting overall revenue.

According to this Fort Mill Times report, the market will continue to enjoy growth as wireless operators continue to migrate to voice over LTE. A strong core of voice application services, IMS and softswitch offerings have secured more than $800 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012.  

Overall, softswitches have been on the decline, yet some operators are making the move to replace their early generation softswitches. IMS continues to make up just more than 40 percent of total VoIP and IMS revenue for 2012, making up for the overall declines seen in legacy trunk media gateways and softswitches.

In evaluating performance by region, Latin America and the Caribbean presented the strongest results when evaluated for growth rates. This region ended 2012 with a 37-percent expansion in sales, an impressive impact on the market.

As carriers continue to evaluate their options and make decisions based on market predictions and consumer usage trends, the softswitch continues to enter the conversation. To ease the process and offer more flexibility, REDCOM offers the opportunity to incrementally migrate to VoIP. REDCOM (News - Alert) softswitch-powered Next Generation Network (NGN) allows service providers to invest in the newest VoIP technology while also protecting the potential of the bottom line.

It can be nothing short of a challenge to migrate legacy infrastructures to an environment that can deliver NGN services effectively and efficiently, especially when multiple technologies are in place. And, while the benefits of VoIP compared with TDM networks are real and measurable, one won’t replace the other overnight.

The service provider must be able to migrate the transition according to current technologies and capabilities, without impacting the end user. This often demands a migration path that allows for full integration between VoIP and TDM to create the unified architecture necessary to support all communications.

REDCOM delivers a next-generation carrier-class 4/5 softswitch that preserves the functionality and the investment a carrier has in its legacy assets, while also enabling safe pass through to VoIP technology. This scalable, interoperable and reliable approach ensures the needs of the carrier business are met, while maintaining a quality of experience for the customer base.

As the trend toward VoIP implementation continues and more carriers adopt a migration strategy to enable complete integration, the next report on softswitch adoption may show more positive results.