Policy Server Market a Bright Spot in the Hunkering-down Telecom Sector

Service providers are increasingly seeing policy servers -- software platforms that help determine which customers and applications should get bandwidth priority and when -- as a necessary cost to ensure fair usage in advanced fixed and mobile networks, says market research firm Infonetics Research in a new report.

The report shows the number of worldwide mobile and fixed-line policy server licenses is more than doubling in 2008 over 2007, and despite the harsh economic climate, is expected to more than double again in 2009. Policy server vendor revenue will reach an accumulative total of $1.6 billion worldwide over the 5 years from 2007 to 2011, Infonetics predicts.

"Because of policy servers' importance in tying bandwidth and application usage to subscriber accounts, and allowing fixed and mobile networks to more effectively allocate bandwidth to subscribers, devices, and applications, policy servers are fast approaching 'must-have' status. Our discussions with service providers either currently deploying or planning to deploy a policy server indicate that the incremental cost of a policy server platform is well worth the capital outlay, especially in mobile networks, where broadband data usage is soaring among HSPA providers. As a result, the policy server segment won't be affected much by current economic contractions," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for Broadband, IPTV, and Next Gen OSS at Infonetics Research.

More highlights from the report:

• The policy server market has already shown signs of consolidation and attrition, with companies such as Tazz Networks going out of business
• Alcatel-Lucent, Bridgewater Systems, Camiant, Ericsson, Juniper, and Nokia Siemens are the major policy server players in the market today
• By 2011, worldwide vendor revenue from mobile policy servers will more than triple fixed-line policy servers
• Between 2007 and 2011, North America's share of worldwide policy server revenue will decrease from 40% to 22%, while Asia Pacific's share will increase 30% to 37%
  

Posted to the site on 20th November 2008