Microsoft and Nortel Networks on Jan. 17 revealed more about their Unified Communications Alliance, announcing real deliverables and detailing a road map for further products due next year.

The alliance, launched in the summer of 2006, has yielded over the last six months a series of integrated offerings due out this year. First of the new deliverables is to be a joint Unified Messaging offering that provides interoperability between Nortel’s Communication Server 1000 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. It represents the first integration of Exchange with Nortel’s native implementation of the industry standard SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). Nortel will supplement the offering with its professional services for design, deployment and support.

Due later in the fourth quarter of 2007 are the UC Integrated Branch and a new Conferencing offering. The UC Integrated Branch will provide a single hardware device that combines routing, switching, VOIP (voice over IP) and unified communications.

“With this we’ve converged branch infrastructure from many boxes to one solution with a truly seamless experience. This combines routing, switching VOIP and all the capabilities from Microsoft in a single device that is cost-effective and can be the engine for new growth in branch offices,” said Nortel Networks CEO Mike Zafirovski at a press event in New York.

The new Conferencing offering will deliver the functions of Nortel’s Multimedia Conferencing product in Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. The aim of that integration is to provide a consistent user experience across voice, instant messaging, presence, and audio and video conferencing, the companies said.

Both companies, in providing firm dates for product deliveries this year, sought to answer critics who have dubbed their efforts slideware.

“We’ve been working diligently on these new solutions in the past six months. They will give second-to-none investment protection, and we have services offerings as part of this on how to help you evolve,” Zafirovski said. “We’ve both worked hard to drive this vision into reality.”

The two companies will also this year address unified communications for large enterprises and carriers by adding support in the Nortel Communications Server 2100 for a unified desktop and soft phone for VOIP, e-mail, instant messaging and presence. The Communication Server 2100 supports as many as 200,000 users on one system.

The road map outlined by the two companies describes a shared vision of how small and large enterprises will move from today’s segmented market with separate “islands” of text messaging, voice mail, e-mail and instant messaging into more advanced integration and finally a transformation in which users interact with a common smart client and integrated back-end infrastructure, according to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

“We’re the only company whose road map talks about a smart, unified client that largely builds on the popularity of our Windows and Office software,” Ballmer said. “We’re the only company to talk about a unified development and management platform at the server level. Other firms will talk about using standard hardware [or] standard operating systems, but making it easy to write a program that combines e-mail, voice, video, and so on—we’re unique on those dimensions as we work together.”

In the second integration phase, which Ballmer said he believes will start this year and will move into full swing by 2009, the two companies expect the “notion of separate PBX and server software will give way to a world in which [Microsoft’s] Office Communications Server and Nortel’s feature server [deliver] the full telephony experience on Intel [-based hardware], Windows development and management tools, and deliver a common experience,” Ballmer said.

The transformation phase emphasizes the integration of back-end infrastructure “with collaboration or business process types and common management,” he said.

In this phase, “even more powerful things happen at the upper layers. When you have one common platform for e-mail, IM voice, video and CRM [customer relationship management], ERP [enterprise resource planning], customer billing, [and] the call center, there is one way to build these applications. It leads to a platform in which line-of-business applications will be broadly enhanced with communication capabilities,” Ballmer said.

Concrete deliverables planned for the later two phases include a unified communications contact center, a Nortel feature server, expanded hosted Unified Communications solutions, mobility and client solutions, and application-aware networking enhancements.

Nortel Networks will also deliver a range of new professional services for enterprises. The company announced 11 new core integration services and a structured convergence integration methodology. Also as part of that effort, Nortel announced that has opened 20 regional collaboration or demonstration centers and intends to increase that number to 100 globally. The centers will be staffed by both Microsoft and Nortel personnel.

The new services include IT business consulting to help create business cases for convergence; VOIP, data network and security assessments to help determine the ability of the customer’s network to support new converged applications; network and security design; implementation services for Nortel Communication Server 1000; configuration services for Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005; dialing plan modification; program management; and ongoing technical support.

Nortel to date has 2,200 VOIP experts globally and it said it intends to increase that number as more enterprises adopt unified communications.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2084941,00.asp?kc=EWRSS04069TX1K0000701

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Only half of small and midsize business users feel they can trust the security behind IP telephony, according to a survey released Jan. 18 by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) and IDC.

User sensitivity to any disruption of service in voice communication and knowledge that IP telephony relies on the same systems they know are vulnerable to viruses, worms and Trojan horses make it hard for any more than 50 percent of those surveyed to say they could rely on the technology, up from 48 percent a year earlier, researchers said.

“People are much more sensitized to disruptions in voice communications than they are with data communications,” said John Venator, president and chief executive officer, CompTIA, which commissioned the study.

“If the delivery of an e-mail is delayed by 30 seconds, neither the message sender nor the receiver is likely to notice. But a 30-second gap in the middle of a phone call is another story entirely.”

Conversely, 82 percent of the 350 respondents said they trust the security of traditional telephone systems, 72 percent trust Ethernet data networks and 60 percent wireless local area networks, according to CompTIA.

“Security concerns continue to present a significant obstacle that has to be overcome to sell converged solutions to SMB customers,” Brian McCarthy, chief operating officer for CompTIA, told eWEEK.

“There is still a level of newness to IP telephony for many businesses that may make them skeptical about its quality, reliability and security,” he said. “Organizations have high confidence in the security of their legacy telephone systems but in the new IP-based communications environment, the system’s functionality resides on standard computing platforms, which are vulnerable to the same types of attacks that plague the data environment.”

IDC queried 350 SMB users, defined as businesses with 500 or fewer employees for the study commissioned by CompTIA.

Large enterprises face the same concern for “good, secure voice and data communications,” but “SMBs may not have the sufficient resources to understand or implement the best practices,” McCarthy.

McCarthy said the industry expects to level of confidence in IP telephony solutions grow as “customers become more educated about and comfortable with the technology.”

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2085417,00.asp?kc=EWRSS04069TX1K0000701

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In-Stat, a technology research firm, released its latest research study Jan. 10 that showed that hosted voice over IP telephony usage has increased among small businesses.

“Hosted VOIP: Steady Growth, But Will the Boom Come?” found that small businesses have the most hosted VOIP deployments in the 20-to-50-seat range and that hosted VOIP will continue to grow over the next few years with revenues expected to exceed $2 billion by 2010.

“Most business customers adopt hosted VOIP with the expectation of cost savings, but soon come to value the feature functionality and integration with data networks the application provides,” David Lemelin, senior analyst at In-Stat in Scottsdale, Ariz., told eWEEK. “As a result, hosted VOIP solutions are becoming more valuable.”

The study goes over a wide variety of topics such as factors increasing the adoption of hosted solutions, mobility convergence, differences in service providers, sales tactics and a VOIP provider’s approach to the market.

“As business managers assess their resident ability to deploy and manage enterprise-like VOIP services, many are finding themselves lacking the capital and expertise required and as a result, hosted VOIP solutions are becoming more attractive,” Lemelin said.

The study from In-Stat found the following:

• U.S.-hosted VOIP seats in service are expected to continue to increase consistently to more than 3 million in 2010, up from 373,000 in 2006
• For hosted VOIP services, cost savings is the main appeal
• Businesses that have several office locations as well as the mobile worker are most attracted to hosted VOIP solutions

Lemelin believes that “business customers looking to outsource voice and data integration to a trusted provider, rather than having to handle integration and ongoing maintenance themselves” is one of the factors that has contributed to the growth of hosted VOIP.

When it comes to the future of hosted VOIP services, Lemelin said: “I see solid growth for the foreseeable future because this is a solution aimed at a massive SMB [small to midsize business] target.”

“I think as we see increased convergence of voice, data, video and mobility, hosted VOIP solutions will be part of integrated solutions bundled to meet the needs of the SMB market,” Lemelin said.

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Fellow VoIP blogger Tom Keating is most circumspect when it comes to even PG-rated four-letter words.

Today he writes of his incalculable frustration attempting to port his Vonage number over to Charter Cable. He had intended to do so because he was frustrated with some Vonage call quality issues, but was also attracted by Charter’s multiple-services offering.

And no, Tom does not give up easily. He doesn’t only write about technology, but he is Founder of TMC Labs. Tom holds a B.S. Computer Engineering, and has 12 years telecom experience.

I’ll spare you the TMI. The gist of it is that when he called Charter to place his order, he was told his Vonage number (a Connecticut number) is not in his rate area (also in Connecticut).

” I was a bit annoyed Charter couldn’t port my number, but I wasn’t entirely surprised eithe,” Tom writes. “Since my wife and I didn’t want to give up our number, we decided to stay with Vonage - held hostage to a phone number that Vonage owned.”

Then Tom admits he doesn’t understand why Vonage was able to port his number while not having a rate center/geographical footprint in his home exchange.

So at this point, Tom was ticked off at Vonage (for service issues) as well as at Charter, his cable provider.

Ever the resourceful guy, Tom decided he’s mad as heck and won’t take it any more.

“What did I end up doing?,” he asks rhetorically. He says he went with AT&T’s double play $50 a month voice and data package for $50a month. He dropped Charter cable and went with DirecTV.

I went with SBC’s “double play” package (voice & data) for $50/month with unlimited voice calling. I also dropped Charter cable and went with DirecTV.

Total savings: $45 a month.

Tom:

“So let me just finish this by saying “number portability my ass!”

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=1223

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NEW YORK (Reuters)—AT&T Inc. plans to push new wireless services and make advertising a key revenue stream following its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp., The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The acquisition, which closed last week, gives AT&T control of mobile phone service provider Cingular Wireless. The companies previously ran Cingular in a joint venture.

“The biggest asset we bought here was Cingular,” AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Edward Whitacre said, according to the Journal. “We’re about to become a company with wireless at its heart.”

AT&T will begin selling wireless service under its own brand name to its pool of corporate phone and Internet customers, the Journal reported. Control of Cingular will allow it to offer discounts for bundles that were impossible when the wireless carrier was a separate entity, the paper reported.

Consumers will get the choice of signing up for a new package of mobile phone and Internet service rather than the traditional bundle of land-line phone and Internet service, the paper also reported.

AT&T has been testing cellphones that can run on Wi-Fi networks when at home, which could let consumers save money on their mobile phone bills and perhaps get better reception indoors, the paper said.

It also reported that AT&T will begin selling advertising on mobile phones, television and Internet access service this year.

Advertisers will be able to buy spots for TV and broadband beginning early this year, with wireless ads following later this year, the Journal said. The advertising business could generate several billion dollars in revenue per year in the next five years, the paper cited the company as saying.

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