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

The new service announced this week requires customers to have Cisco Unified Communications Manager and IP phones installed onsite. It also adds a Cisco session border controller element on the customer premises, which Sprint provides as part of the offering. A Sprint Global MPLS connection provides connectivity to the Sprint IMS core network. The solution works with any Sprint-provided mobile device, not just smart phones but feature phones as well, Sprint’s Jacobson said. The service targets enterprises with at least 100 users.

Among the FMC calling features supported are a single phone number that rings simultaneously at both the user desktop and on their mobile (the desk number is used as the single number, minimizing enterprise changes); a single voicemail box that works across desk and mobile phones; mid-call transfer -- going in either direction, mobile-to-desk or desk-to-mobile – without the caller noticing; and support for extension dialing across the enterprise. Beyond those calling features, the service helps enterprises save money by moving any calls placed to or from the enterprise network “on-net.” That reduces local access trunk charges and allows the enterprise to consume fewer mobile minutes, Sprint’s Jacobson said.

From a network intelligence point of view, the service leverages much of the smarts of the Cisco Mobile Communicator Client – including directory services, visual voicemail and corporate instant messaging – exposing and delivering those capabilities to work on a user’s mobile phone.

For now, the offering does not place an IMS client on the user device, preferring to preserve the simplicity and ubiquity of using any phone with the service. In the future, however, an IMS client would enable Sprint to capture user presence and location data and leverage that data to deliver a richer set of FMC services based on end-to-end IMS capabilities, Jacobson said.