In 3Q16, the market for IMS equipment (wireline + wireless/VoLTE) grew 36% Y/Y to $695 M.  The surge in the growth came primarily from the wireline segment which grew 50% versus 3Q15. The wireless/VoLTE segment grew 19% Y/Y to $530 M and accounted for just over three-quarter of the market.

We forecast that the total market will grow by 16% in 2017, as wireless/VoLTE investments grow 13% and wireline spending rebounds to grow 22%. We expect that as VoLTE services gain in popularity, operators will add more and more communications and social media services that leverage the IMS network.  The first of these applications “beyond IMS” is likely to be RCS.  Many operators messaging services are legacy SMS and MMS systems and RCS will go a long way in modernizing these types of services.