A handful of equipment vendors and US CDMA operator Verizon Wireless have banded together to take IP Multi-media Subsystem (IMS) technology to the next level.

Verizon, together with Cisco, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nortel and Qualcomm, is working to develop enhancements to the emerging IMS architecture.

The next generation architecture has been termed A-IMS (Advances to IMS) and aims to provide solutions to implement next generation services in current networks, as well as creating a foundation for the efficient roll out of both SIP and non SIP-based services in future networks.

The current outputs of the task force are a concept document and an architecture document that are being provided to industry players. The task force companies plan to make necessary standards contributions in the immediate future.

Paul Mankiewich, chief technology officer, Lucent Technologies Network Systems Group said: “We recognise the benefits of this collaboration, particularly in terms of multi-vendor interoperability, as we move into an all-IP mobility world. This effort continues to enable the delivery of blended voice, video, data and multi-media applications, what we call Blended Lifestyle services, to mobile end users.”

Industry analysts are speculating that Canadian vendor Nortel may be planning to spin off its UMTS business following rumours of organisational changes within the company.

Nikos Theodosopoulos, analyst with investment bank UBS, said that he has received information which suggests that Nortel has organisationally separated the GSM and UMTS access businesses, “a move that may presage a potential spin-off/disposal of the UMTS access business”.

Nortel is one of the largest vendors which has remained noticeably uninvolved in the recent spate of equipment manufacturer mergers. The recently announced four year strategic alliance between Nortel and Microsoft as well as a focus on enterprise channel partnerships, indicate that the enterprise space continues to be an area of increasing focus.

Motorola is another manufacturer that has not participated in any of the mega-mergers that have seen Lucent and Alcatel and Nokia and Siemens come together in recent months. But the vendor yesterday formed a UMTS kit partnership with Chinese vendor Huawei, which could be an indicator of future strategy.

Nortel has also been wrong-footed this week by the departure of the vice president and general managers for WiMAX and Converged Core Networks including IMS. No replacements have yet been identified and the developments could put Nortel in a predicament as UBS points out that both IMS and WiMAX are two of three key strategic areas of focus for Nortel.

KTF, one of South Korea’s leading cellular providers, has launched a next-generation ultra-high speed 3.5G wireless network in Seoul and cities across South Korea using wireless broadband technology from LG-Nortel, a joint venture of LG Electronics and Nortel (NYSE/TSX: NT). The network supports advanced handset capabilities including high-definition (HD) video, video chatting, messaging and remote monitoring.

The new 3.5 G HSDPA, handset-based service is being launched with two handset models in the initial deployment – including the first HSDPA phone from LG Electronics, the LG-KH1000. A further four to five handsets are planned later in the year. KTF’s new service is branded ‘WorldPhone View’, a name representing ‘the world at your fingertips’ through access to video and collaborative multimedia applications.

KTF’s HSDPA mobile communications will be rolled out in 50 cities across South Korea beginning June 30. LG-Nortel is the primary network supplier and is the exclusive vendor for 34 cities including the vast Seoul metropolitan area which alone accounts for almost 50 percent of the total population of Korea. It is estimated that 80 percent of the country’s population will be able to access the service by the end of August 2006. A further 34 cities will be added by year-end, raising that figure to over 90 percent of the population, according to KTF estimates.

“The launch of our ‘WorldPhone View’ HSDPA service is a key component of KTF’s portfolio of next-generation mobile services,” said Won-Jin Park, executive vice president, KTF. “We chose LG-Nortel as the primary supplier for our UMTS/HSDPA network based on its strong technology credentials and our existing relationship. LG-Nortel has successfully implemented a world-class network which allows us to implement groundbreaking services as we enhance the mobile communications experience for all our customers.”

“LG Nortel, with the strong support of our parent companies Nortel and LGE, has implemented a secure, reliable, high-speed network to support the innovative range of services and applications KTF is launching to its customers,” said Peter MacKinnon, chairman of the board, LG-Nortel. “Korea leads the world in wireless broadband and LG-Nortel plays an integral role in ensuring the continuation of that success. We will work closely with KTF on the evolution of their network to support higher uplink speeds and ever-more sophisticated service requirements in the future.”

A key differentiator of HSDPA compared to current technologies is its ability to support high-speed, real-time HD video content. ‘WorldPhone View’ users will be able to access a variety of new services, including video SMS, video ringtone services, video chatting, video ad messaging and video remote monitoring – as well as high-quality video telephony. High-speed broadband capabilities will also enhance music downloads and high-volume multimedia collaboration and set the foundation for more sophisticated online gaming applications. The two HSDPA handsets being launched will also support universal integrated circuit (IC) cards, allowing access to secure transactions for transportation, membership, mobile banking and credit card services.

KTF’s HSDPA wireless network can deliver services at download speeds up to 14.4Mbps. The introduction of LG-Nortel’s HSUPA upgrade, planned for early 2007, will increase uplink speeds to 5.8 Mbps, improving performance for services requiring the high-speed upload of data.

Demonstrating its technology leadership, Nortel achieved the industry’s first HSDPA mobile call in January 2005 and Nortel and LGE completed the first live test calls using a commercial handset solution for HSDPA in March 2005. More recently, in February 2006, Nortel achieved approval for the introduction of high speed OFDM and MIMO packet access, in line with its technology HSOPA, into the Global 3GPP LTE standards. This paves the way for ‘multiplay’ services including voice, high-speed interactive applications including large data transfer, feature-rich IPTV, IMS enabled services, all with full mobility.