Worldwide IMS and VoIP revenues surged 31% year-over-year in 2015 to reach $5.5 billion, according to research firm IHS. A growing wave of VoLTE deployments fueled growth, according to IHS’ latest Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers Market Tracker.
2015 was the best year on record for the global carrier VoIP and IMS market, IHS highlights in a press release. VoLTE launches in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific were largely responsible, report author Diane Myers elaborated.
“In Asia Pacific, volumes were driven by Chinese operators building up for VoLTE launches and providers in India getting ready for 2016, the results of the accumulation of activity we saw building throughout the year.”
IMS and VoIP Revenues
Forty-eight commercial VoLTE networks had been launched globally as of year-end 2015 by IHS’ count: 23 in Asia-Pacific, 20 in EMEA and 5 in North America.
Among vendors, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, ZTE and BroadSoft all posted annual VoIP and IMS revenue gains of more than 35%.
Other highlights of IHS’ latest global VoIP and IMS market report include:
- In the 4th quarter of 2015 (4Q15), the global service provider VoIP and IMS market totaled $1.4 billion, a sequential increase of 3 percent
- Session border controllers (SBCs), voice application servers and IMS core elements posted solid year-over-year growth
- IMS equipment revenue (not including SBCs) accounted for 65 percent of VoIP and IMS revenue in 4Q15
There continue to be pockets of growth in gateways and softswitches in any given quarter, much of it due to replacements of older equipment.
