When 3GPP started standardizing the IMS a few years ago, most analysts expected the
number of IMS deploymentsto grow dramatically as soon the initial IMS specifications were
ready (3GPP Release 5 was functionallyfrozenin the first half of 2002and completedshortly
after that). While those predictions have proven to be too aggressive owing to a number of
upheavals hitting the ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) sector, we are
now seeing more and more commercial IMS-based service offerings in the market. At the
time of writing (May 2008), there are over 30 commercial IMS networks running live traffic,
addingup to over10million IMS users aroundthe world; the IMS is beingdeployedglobally.
In addition, there are plenty of ongoing market activities; it is estimated that over 130 IMS
contracts have been awarded to all IMS manufacturers. The number of IMS users will grow
substantially as these awarded contracts are launched commercially. At the same time, the
number of IMS users in presently deployed networks is steadily increasing as new services
are introduced and operators running these networks migrate their non-IMS users to their
IMS networks.
