IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Services Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Services Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Services Market is expected to register a CAGR of 16.5% over the forecast period. IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is an evolving definition of an architecture that solves users' and enterprises' continuing demands and challenges. The architecture aims to define a model that separates the services provided by mobile (traditional cellular), fixed-line (traditional telcos), and converged service providers (cable companies and others that offer triple-play like voice, video, and data services) from the access networks used to receive those services.

Key Highlights

• IMS allows secure and reliable multimedia communications between various devices across various networks. The architectural model offers a unified infrastructure and standard mechanisms for controlling, routing, manipulating, managing sessions and authorization, implementing authentication, and accounting controls. The IMS specifications incorporate widely used Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) recommendations, such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for session control signaling.
• The rise of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology in mobile networks has accelerated the implementation of IMS-based services worldwide. The technology has grown widely across the United States, Asia, and Europe with LTE data and HD voice services.
• Mobile network operators (MNOs) leverage IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) to modernize their existing services. For instance, in September 2021, MTN South Africa partnered with Nokia for network modernization and voice core evolution in South Africa. The operator has planned to leverage Nokia's IMS to deliver high-quality multimedia and voice services. MTN has also intended to modernize its networks in other African countries through this partnership.
• However, the lack of skilled and experienced network engineers for managing and using next-generation networking and virtualized solutions can restrict market growth.
• The telecommunications services industry is the principal end-user of IMS services. From broadband to mobile to data center operators, many telecom players have benefitted from a significant increase in data and voice traffic during the Covid -19 pandemic. As a result, the telecom sector is performing well compared to other industries amid the pandemic.

Key Market TrendsEmergence of 5G Offers Potential Opportunities

• 5G technology is expected to fundamentally transform telecommunications technology's role in society. Moreover, it is also likely to enable the pervasive digitalization of a hyper-connected society, where all people are connected to the network whenever needed and to many other devices/things virtually, creating a society with everything connected.
• A 5G-ready IMS Core offers many advantages. A 5G IMS must usually be built cloud native using microservices methodologies, thereby affording the numerous benefits containerized OS virtualization offers over virtual machines.
• Additionally, 5G IMS can accommodate the rapid growth of rich multimedia applications like OTT streaming of HD content, gaming, and augmented reality, among others, while enabling devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) to onboard the telecommunication backbone with high system spectral efficiency and ubiquitous connectivity.
• In February 2022, American telecommunications software company Mavenir deployed one of the biggest fully cloud-native IMS systems in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for Turkcell in Turkey. The cloud-native IMS solution is a microservice-based architecture purpose-built for fully automated cloud environments which has been deployed on Turkcell's pioneering unified telco cloud. The microservices architecture allows operators to utilize the same IMS core for VoLTE and 5G voice and to deploy new services more quickly and efficiently.
• Moreover, 5G is expected to enable new use cases, such as smart cities, smart agriculture, logistics, and public safety agencies. Thus, the growth of 5G is expected to offer a huge opportunity for the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) services market to flourish.

Asia Pacific to Register Highest Growth Rate

• The Asia Pacific region is the fastest-growing economic region in the world. The region is witnessing the rapid proliferation of smart technologies, such as smart cities, autonomous vehicles, IoT applications, home automation, industrial automation, intelligent processing technologies, and others. These factors are expected to drive market growth.
• Moreover, India has one of the largest telecommunications markets in the region. Also, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, by 2025, the number of active internet users will cross 900 million in the country. Although there has been a gap between urban and rural active internet users, technological developments have narrowed it down.
• Additionally, the Government of India has allowed telecom companies to grow. For instance, the government introduced its Digital India program under multiple sectors, such as healthcare, retail, etc., which are anticipated to be connected through the internet. As a result of these initiatives, the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) services market is expected to grow significantly in the region.
• Asia Pacific is also one of the significant markets for 5G, owing to the highly developing telecom sector and large customer base. Additionally, the region is increasingly investing in the 5G market. Countries such as China, India, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and South Korea are increasingly investing in developing the domestic 5G market, which is also expected to drive the market studied in the region.
• China has invested in a 5G national action plan to organize its industry and deployment efforts through the central government's support. Since 2015, the country's 5G investments have been organized nationally through the three state-owned mobile operators: China Unicom, China Mobile, and China Telecom. China ended 2021 with a total of 1.43 million 5G base stations across the country, per China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Further, the government expects the number of 5G users to exceed 560 million by 2023.

Competitive Landscape

The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Services Market is highly competitive because of many major players. The key players leverage strategic collaborative actions to improve their market percentage and enhance their profitability. These players, with a noticeable share in the market, are also concentrating on expanding their customer base across foreign countries.

• May 2022 - Nokia launched a new cloud-native IMS Voice Core product to help communication service providers (CSPs) simplify their network operations, increase operational agility, and decrease the cost of managing their network. The Nokia Cloud Native Communication Suite (CNCS) is a simplified, IMS-based product architected as a single Cloud Native Network Function (CNF).
• October 2021 - Ericsson and Zain Jordan announced a strategic agreement to modernize and extend voice services utilizing the current Ericsson Cloud IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), further strengthening the two companies' existing collaboration at GITEX GLOBAL.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

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