IMS or Nothing?

10:00 AM -- PARIS -- TVoDSL 2008 -- Here's a statement likely to elicit a few strong reactions: "There is NO alternative architecture" to IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).

Who, you might ask, has been so bold as to make such a proclamation? Pascal de Cointet, technical program manager at French vendor Thomson S.A. (NYSE: TMS; Euronext Paris: 18453) is the man you want.

Giving a presentation entitled "Does it make sense to use IMS for Delivering IPTV?" here in Paris (naturally, his conclusion was "Oui"), de Cointet noted that "all networks are converging to IMS."

All?

Mobile core, fixed access networks designed to support video, cable networks... they're all going to be based on standards that conform to an IMS architecture, he stated.

I can't help thinking that, outside the confines of the Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel in Paris, the Thomson man might find some conflicting viewpoints. (See IMS's Web 2.0 Problem, Report: IMS Goes From Hero to Zero, and AT&T Defines Service Creation Platform.)

But we're very pleased to see a vendor that's throwing its weight behind an idea and not just sitting on the fence.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading