Ericsson’s IMS portfolio and specifically its application strategy continue to receive high rankings from analyst firm Current Analysis. According to the report, Ericsson’s weight among application developers has played a “significant role” in the adaptation of IMS infrastructure.

The June 2009 report breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of Ericsson’s entire IMS solution, grading specifically on Application Strategy, Border Control, Portfolio Depth, IMS Breakout, Interoperability, Convergence and Session Control.

Ericsson continues to receive an ‘Outstanding’ rating for its application portfolio. The report says: “Ericsson was one of the first equipment makers to recognize that application development will play a significant role in driving the adoption of IMS infrastructure.”

As of May 2009 Ericsson has 63 IMS deployments, 34 of which are delivering commercial services.

“Ericsson has empowered its Developer Connection program with IMS extensions. The initiative should help to accelerate the availability of IMS-based applications by providing its developer universe with additional tools and resources for creating IMS applications.”

According to the report, Ericsson’s development efforts have resulted in a catalogue of 100 IMS-based services. Ericsson’s primary tool for third-party application creation is the Service Development Studio (SDS).

“In addition to working with third-party developers, Ericsson is also encouraging operators to adopt IMS infrastructure through the availability of compelling applications such as Rich Communication Suite (RCS), Business Communication Suite (BCS), Multimedia Telephony (MMTel) and IPTV.”

The report also points out that Ericsson was one of the first to recognize the importance of adopting a set of commonly used applications and network to network interfaces (NNIs). “Ericsson has been the strongest supporter of initiatives and standards, such as MMTel and RCS that call for standardized services and NNIs.

According to the report, Ericsson has shown a particularly strong engagement in the standardization of the Java-based, client application creation environment and is a co-leader of the specification, JSR 281.

In addition, the report states that Ericsson has done an excellent job leveraging its application developer expertise to compliment its IMS portfolio:  “Ericsson has one of the most widely deployed and comprehensive solutions in the telecommunications industry.”

By David Francisco