SIP Delays Bring New Life to NGIN App Servers, Report Finds

While network operators delay migration plans to next-gen service technologies such as SIP and IMS, interest is building in offerings that leverage existing Next-Generation Intelligent Network (NGIN) capabilities for creating telco application servers that don't require massive investment, according to the latest report from Light Reading's Services Software Insider (www.lightreading.com/servsoftware), a paid research service of TechWeb's Light Reading (www.lightreading.com).

Telco App Servers: NGIN Revs Up for a Serious Run at SIP analyzes the service-layer capabilities that operators will need to establish to support third-party service development and evaluates the strategies of leading vendors of telco app server technology as they position themselves for the next evolution of this market. It also profiles 10 leading companies in the market.

For a list of companies analyzed in this report, please see: http://img.lightreading.com/ssi/pdf/ssi0909companies.pdf

The past 12 months has seen much change in the service-layer market, says Caroline Chappell, research analyst with Light Reading's Services Software Insider and author of the report. "As a result of the global economic downturn, many operators are looking at ways of leveraging their existing IN services and legacy network assets, making them available to third-party developers without having to redevelop them in SIP," she explains. "Operators want to continue offering the same services, but they don't want such services and assets to remain locked into the legacy platforms."

This shift has led several key vendors of service-layer technology to reevaluate their market offers, Chappell notes. "Alcatel-Lucent and HP are redoubling their efforts to support legacy IN customers with new service platforms that operators can use as they migrate to an NGN," she says. "Both have established strategies for supporting multiple communities of developers, from trusted internal and external developers that need access to network protocols, to Web 2.0 developers."

Other key findings of Telco App Servers: NGIN Revs Up for a Serious Run at SIP include:

  --  Alcatel-Lucent claims a "passionate commitment" to JSLEE, a major
      boost for the technology and a challenge to SIP-oriented competitors.
  --  SIP app server vendors face less competition due to market
      consolidation but need to prove their value, as operators prefer to
      sweat existing assets.
  --  Charging, messaging, and voice lead the business case for service
      exposure to third-party developer communities.

  --  Vendors should set up third-party ecosystems to encourage selection of
      their platforms and must expand the range of SDP function they can
      offer to ensure they become the telco app server of choice.

Telco App Servers: NGIN Revs Up for a Serious Run at SIP is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (six issues) to Light Reading's Services Software Insider, priced at $1,295. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: www.lightreading.com/servsoftware. For more information on all of Light Reading's Insider services, please visit www.lightreading.com/research.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact:

  Jeff Claudino
  Director of Sales
  Insider Research Services
  619-229-9940
  claudino@lightreading.com

  Press/analyst contact:

  Dennis Mendyk
  Managing Director
  Insider Research Services
  201-587-2154
  mendyk@heavyreading.com

  About Light Reading

Founded in 2000, Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the $3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Expo London, The Tower Summit @ CTIA, and Optical Expo, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About TechWeb

TechWeb (techweb.com/aboutus), the global leader in business technology media, is an innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Wall Street & Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

  * 13.3 million business decision-makers: based on # of monthly connections

  About United Business Media Limited

UBM (UBM.L) focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetization of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewelry traders, from farmers to pharmacists - with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organized into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently. For more information, go to http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/.

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SOURCE: Light Reading's Services Software Insider

CONTACT: Jeff Claudino, Director of Sales, Insider Research Services,
+1-619-229-9940, claudino@lightreading.com; or Press/analyst contact: Dennis
Mendyk, Managing Director, Insider Research Services, +1-201-587-2154,
mendyk@heavyreading.com

Web Site: http://www.lightreading.com/servsoftware