Infonetics: Carrier VoIP Market Up in 1Q12; Alcatel-Lucent Doubles Share

Thanks to exceptionally strong IMS equipment spending, the overall service provider VoIP equipment market bucked its traditional down first quarter by inching up 1% to $715 million over 4Q11, according to a newly released report from Infonetics Research. The increased spending on IMS equipment is tied to Voice over LTE deployments.

"In the first quarter of 2012 we saw the largest order of IMS core equipment and application server licenses on record, secured by Alcatel-Lucent -- a clear sign that operators in North America are gearing up for voice over LTE (VoLTE) deployments. While commercial VoLTE services have yet to launch, this is a taste of what is to come as operators push forward over the next 5+ years. That said, large equipment orders will be sporadic and the IMS market will continue to be lumpy," explains Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research.

Some highlights:

Globally, the overall market is up 18% in 1Q12 from the year-ago first quarter -- despite continued declines in legacy trunk media gateway and softswitch sales -- driven by strong IMS core equipment, session border controller (SBC), and voice application server sales.

In 1Q12, Alcatel-Lucent more than doubled its service provider VoIP and IMS revenue and market share, propelling them to the #1 position for worldwide market share, ahead of perennial leaders Huawei and GENBAND North America led the quarter, with carrier VoIP and IMS spending up 18% quarter-over-quarter and up a strong 76% year-over-year.

Infonetics expects the number of mobile and fixed-line subscribers on IMS networks to grow 42% in 2012 to top 250 million worldwide. http://www.infonetics.com