Many Leading VOIP Vendors Are Lacking a Key Technology Ingredient, Heavy Reading Finds
March 04 2005 - 2:37PM
PR Newswire (US)
Many Leading VOIP Vendors Are Lacking a Key Technology Ingredient,
Heavy Reading Finds Report shows that many makers of VOIP
softswitches have no plans to incorporate critical session border
control functions in their products NEW YORK, March 4 /PRNewswire/
-- Makers of the softswitches that telecom carriers are using to
deliver voice over IP (VOIP) service to their customers have no
firm plans to incorporate session border control features into
their products, even though their carrier customers see a growing
need for those functions, concludes a major new study released
today by Heavy Reading (http://www.heavyreading.com/), the market
research division of Light Reading Inc. "VOIP Session Border
Controllers: A Heavy Reading Competitive Analysis" presents the
most detailed, comprehensive competitive analysis of session border
controllers (SBCs) ever undertaken. The report evaluates 40
products from 23 different manufacturers, providing granular
information on every important aspect of functionality and
performance of each vendor's offering. The report also delivers
in-depth analysis of how SBCs are now being deployed to enable VOIP
services, as well as how the technology's place is likely to evolve
in service provider networks and in the telecom equipment
hierarchy. "Most major softswitch vendors are not ready to address
session border control as a strategic part of their next-generation
network plans," says Graham Beniston, Heavy Reading Analyst at
Large and author of the 117-page report. "Suppliers such as Alcatel
[NYSE: ALA], Ericsson [Nasdaq: ERICY], Lucent Technologies [NYSE:
LU], and Siemens [NYSE: SI] are still shaping their 'big picture'
VOIP architectures and are concentrating their strategic thinking
on that area. This should help SBC specialists maintain a
leadership role in defining their market." Beniston notes that most
major suppliers of VOIP softswitches are now relying on
partnerships with smaller SBC specialist companies to deliver
session border control functions to their customers. Rather than
develop their own SBC expertise, those vendors are likely to
acquire smaller SBC specialists when the time is right, he
concludes. Other key findings of the report include: Telecom
carriers see a need for session border control, which means the
prospects for SBC specialist vendors are generally bright. Carrier
requests for proposal (RFPs) specifying session border control
functionality are appearing in quantity now. For SBC startups,
there are multiple sales channel options ranging from direct sales
to partnerships with large incumbents. Several SBC specialists now
have such partnerships in place. Exit strategies from IPO to
acquisition are viable. Carrier VOIP architecture futures and
vendor strategies are realigning around the requirements of
fixed-mobile convergence. Most of the major incumbent vendors are
now following the 3rd-Generation Partnership Project's (3GPP) IP
multimedia subsystem (IMS) standard. The question of whether SBC
signaling control will be integrated into the softswitch will not
be resolved until the move to an architecture based on IMS is well
under way. Products from Sonus, NexTone, Kagoor, Jasomi, NeoTIP,
and Tekelec graded as best-in-class across the different SBC
categories evaluated. Sonus earned the top spot in product
comparisons involving intercarrier peering. In the carrier access
evaluations, NexTone achieved the highest overall rating. Kagoor
has the strongest products in the distributed SBC signaling
controller category. Jasomi's PeerPoint earned the highest marks in
the distributed SBC media proxy category. NeoTIP and Tekelec graded
out as the best enterprise SBC products. "VOIP Session Border
Controllers: A Heavy Reading Competitive Analysis" is published in
PDF format and costs $3,495. The price includes an enterprise
license covering all of the employees at the purchaser's company.
For more information, or to request a free executive summary,
contact: Dave Williams Sales Director, Heavy Reading 415-321-3750,
ext. 30 Press/analyst contact: Dennis Mendyk Managing Director,
Heavy Reading 201-587-2154 About Heavy Reading Heavy Reading is an
independent market research organization offering quantitative
analysis of telecom technology to service providers, vendors, and
investors. Its mandate is to provide the comprehensive competitive
analysis needed today for the deployment of profitable networks
based on next-generation hardware and software. DATASOURCE: Heavy
Reading CONTACT: Dave Williams, Sales Director, +1-415-321-3750,
ext. 30 or , or Press and Analysts, Dennis Mendyk, Managing
Director, +1-201-587-2154 or , both of Heavy Reading Web site:
http://www.lightreading.com/
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