Operators are increasingly looking to take the lead in emerging standards, especially where these involve the way they differentiate their mobile web services. And since Japan’s DoCoMo has always been one of the most aggressive cellcos in new technologies, it is no surprise it is heading up a new initiative to create enhanced specifications for IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem). The carrier has signed up five key vendors ‘ Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and its own homegrown suppliers NEC and Fujitsu ‘ for the project.
For several years, IMS has been touted as the key core network platform that would enable operators to deliver new services quickly and efficiently, handling security, billing, user data and policy/authentication along the way. However, the platform has generally been used only for a few services, with operators fighting shy of big bang migrations of their cores.
But the urgency behind IMS is growing, since it supports the number one weapon that cellcos have as they fight to retain a key role in the mobile internet value chain ‘ their in-depth customer data and ability to profile and target individual subscribers. Although IMS has similar goals to mobile Web 2.0, the latter increasingly could bypass the cellco by linking consumers to apps via the open browser, as promoted by Google and others.
So carriers are showing new interest in IMS, as a way to keep their own mobile services differentiated and to add value for their users – but they need some enhancements first.
DoCoMo and its partners say their developments will make IMS more relevant and deployable, and in particular, will enable value added services that are dependent on passing through the operator network and core, rather than being accessed merely by the open browser. Specific services already tested by the group include translation of text messages between languages (Japanese to English in this case), and converting a photo to other visual formats like watercolour. In other words, the partners are adding functions like translation and image conversion to the basic data exchange capabilities of vanilla IMS. Different value added services could be developed for different operators’ particular customer requirements.
The work draws on the most important technology in creating a bridge between conventional, IMS and full web models, the GSM Association’s RCS (Rich Communications Suite), which offers a step-by-step approach to full-blown IMS by supporting a core set of specific services such as presence. The first live ones emerged in July in Korea, and included phonebook driven buddy lists, presence capability with taglines and status, and voice/messaging. As core network specialist Acme Packet puts it, RCS is ‘a very compelling toolkit to combat competition from Web 2.0, app stores and social networks’ ‘ and the DoCoMo work builds upon it further. Its group’s specs have been submitted to the GSMA for possible inclusion in RCS.