Market research firm Infonetics Research today released market share and forecast excerpts from its 4th quarter 2012 (4Q12) and year-end Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers report. (Detailed analysis will be published March 4.)

ANALYST NOTE

“As we predicted, after 3 years of annual declines, the carrier VoIP and IMS equipment market turned the corner in 2012, growing 9% over the previous year due to strong IMS sales,” notes Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research. “It’s still early days for IMS equipment and applications for LTE, but a handful of operators are placing orders that are positively impacting revenue.”

Myers adds: “This is a taste of what’s to come over the next few years as wireless operators step into voice over LTE (VoLTE) and RCS begins to roll out across multiple regions.”

CARRIER VOIP AND IMS MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

• Global sales of carrier voice over IP (VoIP) and IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) equipment topped $800 million in 4Q12, thanks to a strong core of IMS, voice application servers, and softswitches
• IMS equipment made up just over 40% of total VoIP and IMS revenue in 2012, offsetting overall declines in legacy softswitch and trunk media gateways
• Though softswitches continue to decline on an annual basis, some operators are replacing early generation softswitches with new ones, opting not to switch to IMS
• For the full year, the Caribbean and Latin America region (CALA) posted the strongest growth of all regions, spiking 37%
• Huawei solidified its position atop the VoIP and IMS market share leaderboard in 2012, with around 1/5 of the global market; Alcatel-Lucent leapfrogged GENBAND to seize the #2 spot
• Standout vendors in terms of sequential revenue growth in 2012 include Alcatel-Lucent, BroadSoft, Ericsson, Huawei, Mavenir, Nokia Siemens Networks, and ZTE, all benefitting from the expansion of IMS networks

VOIP REPORT SYNOPSIS

Infonetics’ quarterly carrier VoIP and IMS report provides worldwide and regional market share, market size, forecasts, analysis, and trends for trunk media gateways, session border controllers (SBCs), media servers, Class 4 and Class 5 softswitches, voice application servers, IMS core equipment (HSS, BGCF, MGCF, CSCF servers), IMS application servers, and VoIP and IMS subscribers. Companies tracked include Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, AudioCodes, BroadSoft, Dialogic, Ericsson, GENBAND, Huawei, Italtel, Mavenir, MetaSwitch, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks, RadiSys, Sonus, Technicolor, Xener, ZTE, and others. To buy the report, contact Infonetics: http://www.infonetics.com/contact.asp.

RELATED RESEARCH

• Latest Infonetics Service Provider VoIP and IMS research brief: http://bit.ly/Yvfucz
• Godfrey Chua joins Infonetics to launch M2M and Connected World research
• Diameter signaling controller market set to double in 2013 as LTE deployments take off
• Infonetics survey shows operators favor multi-vendor SBC strategy
• $377 billion to be spent on VoIP and UC services over next 5 years

UPCOMING RESEARCH

Download Infonetics’ market research brochure, publication calendar, events brochure, report highlights, tables of contents, and more at http://www.infonetics.com/login.

• SIP Trunking & SBC Strategies: North American Enterprise Survey
• VoIP & UC Services & Subscribers Market Share & Forecasts
• Mobile VoIP Services & Subscribers Market Share & Forecasts
• IMS Service Strategies, Product Features & Leadership: Service Provider Survey

INFONETICS WEBINARS

Visit https://www.infonetics.com/infonetics-events to learn more or register for Infonetics events.

• Session Border Controllers in VoLTE (Feb. 12 – View on demand now)
• Scaling Small Cell Backhaul (Feb. 19 – View on demand now)
• 100G Optics: Why Operators Are Upgrading Now, with Cisco, Cyan, Oclaro (Mar. 5)
• Diameter Signaling Control: Managing Mobile Broadband Growth, with Ericsson (Apr. 11)
• Deploying Enterprise SBCs to Facilitate SIP Trunking (Sponsorships available)
• Unified Communications in the Cloud (Sponsorships available)

TO BUY REPORTS, CONTACT:

N. America (West), Asia, Latin America: Larry Howard, larry@infonetics.com, +1 408-583-3335

N. America (East), Texas, Midwest: Scott Coyne, scott@infonetics.com, +1 408-583-3395

Europe, Middle East, Africa: George Stojsavljevic, george@infonetics.com, +44 755-488-1623

Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan: http://www.infonetics.com/contact.asp

ABOUT INFONETICS

Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete effectively. View Infonetics’ About Us slides at http://bit.ly/QUrbrV.

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