The decision to adopt IMS reflects Vodafone's MobilePlus Strategy, which involves IP-based communications combining the best of the mobile and internet/PC worlds. The contract also sees Ericsson providing professional services such as installation, integration, consultancy, testing and support.

 

By implementing Ericsson's IMS solution, Vodafone Germany will be able to offer a wide range of truly converged fixed and mobile multimedia services to its consumer and business customers.

 

Hartmut Kremling, CTO, Vodafone Germany, says: "By introducing Ericsson IMS into the German Vodafone network, we will be able to offer new innovative services to our customers."

 

Stefan Kindt, President, Ericsson Germany, says: "This contract marks a milestone in the ongoing partnership between Ericsson and Vodafone. IMS will provide a smooth, service-driven, low-risk path that allows Vodafone to sustainably evolve its customer offering while supporting a range of applications that can generate additional revenue streams in the future."

IMS is a standardized, cost-efficient system that allows operators to rapidly roll out new telecom-grade services to their customers. From an end-user perspective, IMS allows access to multimedia content and applications, and provides the same look and feel for end users, irrespective of which network or device they choose.

IMS allows users to access a common set of services and capabilities from any fixed or mobile device. It supports a variety of multimedia applications - such as Voice over IP, whiteboard and messaging - at the same time. The multi-service, access-independent architecture of IMS acts as an enabler of service and network convergence, and is a natural evolutionary step along the road to an all-IP network environment.

 

Notes to editors:
Introduction to IMS (White paper)

www.ericsson.com/technology/whitepapers/8123_Intro_to_ims_a.pdf 
www.ericsson.com/technology/whitepapers/all.shtml

 

More background material on IMS:
www.ericsson.com/ericsson/press/facts_figures/index.shtml