Common Misperceptions About RCS #1: IMS is a Prerequisite

One of the most common concerns I have heard about RCS is that an IMS deployment is a pre-requisite. This idea creates barriers as, while IMS deployment is an inevitability for any operator moving to LTE, there are still many who haven’t moved to adopt an IMS core. This isn’t surprising, as adopting and deploying IMS is both a major strategic decision and a significant financial investment.

I’ve heard all sorts of concerns over business cases and rationale that have been said to hold back IMS. The result has been that services such as RCS, which leverage IMS capabilities to deliver an enhanced customer experience, have lagged in the last few years. It’s not even a chicken and egg situation – it’s been believed that you need IMS for RCS, so RCS can’t even be considered until the IMS issues have been resolved. No argument.

The GSMA has tried hard to cut through this by creating a kind of starter-kit, the RCS-e standards, in the hope of stimulating adoption. These go a long way towards lowering barriers to entry, but still the idea that IMS is a must remains.

At the same time, consumers have already shown great interest in the capabilities that RCS offers by voting with their feet and adopting applications from OTT providers that they can install on their smartphones. It’s a shame, as RCS has been around for a few years now and offers genuine promise for enhancing the communications experience of customers. People want to use these features, but haven’t been able to get them from their mobile service providers. And, the different solutions have limitations as they may not be interoperable with each other and create closed communities.

But, received wisdom – as so often – turns out not to be correct. It’s perfectly possible to deploy a fully-featured RCS-e service without an IMS core. A hosted RCS-e solution can be deployed in the cloud and accessed via IP. It does not require the core IMS components, such as CSCF, HSS, etc, but can be integrated quickly and efficiently with an existing legacy infrastructure.

And when you think about it, OTT providers delivering sophisticated messaging solutions and clients for smartphones don’t tend to have an IMS core. They seem to manage quite well without them – which isn’t to say IMS doesn’t bring benefits, but more to point out that you can run innovative, rich services without waiting for IMS. The OTT vendors aren’t coming to the MNOs asking to deploy their applications – they are going directly to MNO customers and trying to replace the current, ubiquitous messaging services. They don’t need IMS.

In fact, I’m pretty sure that users aren’t busy demanding IMS-based services either. What they want is a rich messaging environment which offers something beyond what they have today. These users need something attractive from MNOs that provides a comparable experience to the OTT applications that they see on the Internet.

That’s what RCS-e offers – and there’s no reason to wait until full-scale network evolution to IMS takes place. By selecting a hosted solution, MNOs can launch RCS-e services for their customers within a matter of weeks. All that is required is IP connectivity from the user equipment via the RAN to the internet or the MNO’s private network. When the network is ready for IMS deployment, the solution can be migrated across to the new IMS core.

The ability to deploy RCS-e without IMS immediately removes these perceived obstacles, enabling MNOs to focus on a core service that adds value to their offer and will be a key tool in building subscriber loyalty.

-- Gavin