Only eight percent of operators worldwide are running IP multimedia subsystems in an network functions virtualisation environment, new research has found.
The report, from IHS/Infonetics, said operators were overly optimistic about their virtualisation plans. Researchers were sceptical about the claims from 80 percent of service providers that parts of their IMS will be running in an NFV environment by 2017.
Between 60 and 65 percent of respondents currently run residential voice over broadband, such as VoIP, SIP trunking or hosted business VoIP over IMS, the report found. This figure is predicted to grow to 88 percent by 2017.
The report said telephony application servers were an important element of commercial IMS networks, with 72 percent of those surveyed saying they have installed voice application servers.
The survey polled 25 operators from EMEA, Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America.
Diane Myers, research director for VoIP, UC and IMS at IHS, said: “Though only a small number of service providers who took part in our IMS strategies survey are currently running IMS in a virtualised environment, more are on the path by starting to utilise software running on commercial off-the-shelf hardware as a stepping stone to full NFV.
“One of the biggest drivers for NFV is the ability to scale services up and down quickly and introduce new network services more efficiently and in a timely manner, which makes IMS a good early fit for NFV.”
In Europe, Telefónica and Telekom Austria have been two of the most vocal proponents of virtualisation technology. This week, the Spanish operator extended its work with Alcatel-Lucent, with plans to test NFV within the Internet of Things.
However, Telekom Austria Group has halted its virtualisation trials in its Balkan telcos after recent management upheaval at the operator.