Infonetics Research: Carriers name Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Sonus top VoIP vendors

CAMPBELL, CA, Jul 23 (MARKET WIRE) --
A new study by Infonetics Research that provides a broad view of service
provider thinking and plans for voice over IP, including service provider
perceptions of leading VoIP vendors, names Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent,
Cisco, and Sonus as the "top VoIP equipment manufacturers," with Cisco
emerging as the most familiar manufacturer.

According to the study, Service Provider Plans for VoIP, which surveyed
service providers in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin
America-Caribbean, the top 3 technical challenges these carriers face are
competition, migration to IMS, and capex reduction.

"Service providers are operating in a capped capex environment now --
meaning, generally they purchase equipment only when they need it. There
are some areas in which most carriers are increasing their capex, though:
growth areas tied to additional revenue, such as VoIP," said Stephane
Teral, principal analyst at Infonetics for service provider VoIP, IMS, and
mobile infrastructure.

The study is based on formal interviews conducted by Infonetics' senior
analysts with incumbents, IXCs, competitive operators, vertically
integrated service providers, and specialists. The 85-page study examines
the trends, drivers, barriers, and implementation plans of VoIP service
providers, and features VoIP network architecture plans, a VoIP vendor
scorecard, and service provider feature wish-lists for VoIP products,
including trunk media gateways, softswitches, voice application servers,
media servers, and session border controllers.

Other highlights from the study:

-- 40% of respondent service providers don't plan to complete their
migration to Class 4/tandem switching until after 2009, suggesting they
have enough capacity to handle international voice traffic growth
-- The top retail VoIP service offered by service providers to their
residential and business customers is voice over broadband
-- In a series of questions asking service providers to rate Alcatel-
Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens, Nortel, and Sonus, those
familiar with the vendors rated Sonus highest for technology, product
roadmap, security, management, and price-to-performance ratio
-- 55% of respondents have already installed Acme Packet's session border
controllers

Download study highlights from Infonetics' online portal at
www.infonetics.com (see Service Provider VoIP and IMS area). For sales,
contact Larry Howard, vice president, at larry@infonetics.com or +1 (408)
583-3335.

Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market
research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since
1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established
technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan,
strategize, and compete more effectively.

Press Contact
Stephane Teral
Principal Analyst, Service Provider VoIP, IMS, and Mobile Infrastructure
Infonetics Research
+1 408.583.3371
Email Contact

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