Sprint's real-world IMS: FMC, yes; IP trunking, not yet

When mobile operator Sprint sprinted out ahead of its rivals several years ago in deploying an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core, one of the things industry watchers were most curious about was what services would be delivered using IMS.

Not surprisingly, fixed mobile convergence (FMC) offerings are among the first IMS-enabled services to make the cut. This week, Sprint launched its second enterprise-focused FMC service: Sprint Wireless Integration with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. The service delivers integrated call features, messaging and routing between an enterprise using the Cisco platform and Sprint’s own wireless service and phones. Sprint delivered the initial version of this service, working with Avaya PBXs, about a year ago. A third flavor, targeting Nortel PBXs, is up next on the roadmap.

Leveraging its existing IMS network made the launch of the Cisco FMC offering an easier proposition, said Dan Jacobson, senior portfolio manager in Sprint’s FMC services group. “It definitely would have been more a more difficult product [to build] without it,” Jacobson said, noting that IMS was a good fit for the relatively complex, largely network-based offering. “We didn’t have to reset up the architecture [originally built for the Avaya service]. A lot of that [IMS] infrastructure was already in place.”

That said, Jacobson’s group at Sprint offers two enhanced FMC-style services – Integrated Office and the more CPE-based Mobile Extension – that do not use the operator’s IMS network. Other upcoming IP-based wireless offerings, such as a soon-to-be-announced IP trunking service, also do not leverage the IMS core, said Steve Coker, another Sprint senior portfolio manager. Coker’s team works on non-FMC wireless enterprise apps.