IMS has been around for some time, and many infrastructure vendors have invested heavily in developing IMS capabilities, solutions and products.

But market acceptance has been slower than expected. Now, with the 4G standards (LTE (News - Alert) and WiMAX) taking shape, IMS has been given a new role and a niche market that looks set to carry these platforms forward into a more certain future.

This development comes from that the fact that some elements of IMS such as the Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and the Policy and Charging Rule Function (PCRF) are also key components in the LTE core architecture.

Similar elements are also defined in WiMAX. These elements are required to enable the end-to-end QoS and dynamic charging capabilities required for next-generation of mobile data services.

 ABI Research (News - Alert) senior analyst Nadine Manjaro: “IMS, which enables the rapid creation and deployment of new services and applications, was rather slow to take off because operators weren’t quite sure how they were going to use it. 

They struggled to find a business case for it. Now, the FCC (News - Alert) in the United States has declared that winners of 700MHz spectrum must meet open application and device criteria. Verizon won most of that band in the recent auction and will use it for LTE.

Verizon (News - Alert) launched its Open Development Initiative based on IMS architecture called ‘Advances to IMS’ in March 2008. This interface for applications and devices will enable the openness that the FCC requires.”