Many Leading VOIP Vendors Are Lacking a Key Technology Ingredient4 March 2005
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
dave.williams@heavyreading.com Press/analyst contact:
Dennis Mendyk
Managing Director, Heavy Reading
201-587-2154
mendyk@heavyreading.com 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.
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Source: Heavy Reading
Source: PR Newswire
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