According to MarketsandMarkets, the global Rich Communications Services market is forecast to grow from $596.3 Million in 2013 to $5,749.6 Million in 2019 driven by the growth in investments in IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) and Long Term Evaluation (LTE) networks. In addition, the phenomenal growth in online social networks have created a strong demand for the technology.
Given that Mobile Network Operators (MNO) face stiff competition from internet OTT players, the RCS will enable MNOs to roll out their suite of services leveraging the benefits provided by the RCS which include interoperability across any operator network, integrated voice and video services, richer communication experience, and the ability to connect to anyone and anywhere with an enabled handset. For consumers, RCS presents the capability of merging voice and SMS with instant messaging and video sharing across all devices and networks.
The report covers a range of RCS services provided by MNOs such as Chat, Content Sharing, VoIP, IP Video Call, File Transfer, Social Presence Sharing. According to Marketsandmarkets, Europe is expected to be the largest market in terms of market size, while Asia-Pacific and Latin America are expected to experience an increase in market traction during the forecast period.
The market research firm says that at present, larger players are more dominant in this space, with major companies such as Acision, Alcatel-Lucent, Comverse, Ericsson, Genband, Huawei, Interop Technologies, Mavenir Systems, Nokia Solutions and Networks, and SAP taking up significant market share.
