As new multimedia capabilities are rapidly changing the way we do business, the IMS Global ComForum offers a unique opportunity for content originators and distributors, wireless and wireline service providers, technology developers and suppliers to come together and discuss the commercial and technical aspects of deploying IMS systems and launching new services and applications.

Attendees can choose IMS sessions to complement their experience at the 21st Century Communications World Forum, or choose the IMS session program in its entirety.

• The Right Timing of Implementing IMS in a Fixed, Mobile Environment
• IMS: The Importance of a Standard Architecture
• The IMS Business Case: The Operator Economics and Revenue Opportunity
• The Promise of IMS: Myth versus Reality
• Blending Multimedia Content: What the IMS Can and Does Achieve
• IMS: Implementation in a FMC Environment
• Secure UMA: The Fast Track to IMS

The recent report according to the high-tech market research firm In-Stat, IMS for Wireline/Wireless Multimedia Convergence: The Vision, Strategies, and Challenges, found the following:

• The migration towards IMS will be a gradual evolution where service providers initially deploy overlay networks to test new services and the workings of the new architecture.
• A key challenge for service providers is to understand the types of multimedia services that different market segments will be willing to buy.
• Service providers are migrating to VoIP infrastructures based on softswitches to reduce costs.