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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mobile Softswitch 2008 Update: Big Growth, New Value
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 16, 2008 - There were 3 million MSC software licenses shipped globally in 2007, experiencing a 79.2% growth compared with the 515 million licenses sold in 2006. An increasing number of service providers from North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific have started to upgrade their mobile core networks onto a softswitch structure. Discussions with equipment vendors and carriers indicate that, currently, more than 85% of newly-built cellular networks (2G/3G) have employed softswitch platforms globally, according to In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com).
In spite of the maturity of mobile softswitches, equipment vendors are continuously adding technology innovations and new features to their solutions like MSC pools, embedded IMS functionality and fixed-mobile convergence capability. Furthermore, new hardware platforms such as ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) are also being employed on new generation softswitch equipment. In terms of technology evolution trends, In-Stat believes that the future will see: 1) All-IP transmission trends; 2) an R4 softswitch that will co-exist with IMS for a long period; and 3) a smooth evolution to IMS.
In-Stat interviewed global mobile service providers to understand their attitudes toward mobile softswitches, and the benefits of softswitches were confirmed by these operators (In Figure 2 In-Stat has charted the benefits by showing an adoption timeline as well as strategic importance to carriers, while the size of each bubble represents the impact realized on decreased CAPEX and OPEX resulting from employing some features of the softswitch system).
Currently, the major telecom equipment suppliers like Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia-Siemens all have mature mobile softswitch products and related network solutions. As shown in Figure 3, Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia-Siemens combined accounted for most of the market, with Huawei ranking first, accounting for 43.7% of the market, followed by Nokia-Siemens and Ericsson.
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