Your industry review for: April 3, 2006

Upfront		NATD Services		The Flag – EU & International News
Applications	Contact center		Markets		Avaya
Cisco	NEC		Nortel		Siemens

Siemens enters U.S. Carrier Ethernet market

NEC profiles complete suite of converged communications solutions

Cisco recognizes Global Knowledge as top training provider

U pfront

Don't let the sun go down on TDM

Optimists have heralded the longevity of Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM), which was first productized more than 40 years ago. But after several false starts, the sun may be setting on the longtime digital voice transmission champ. According to market watcher Infonetics Research, the enterprise telephony market is in the midst of a move away from TDM-based circuit switching technology toward packet switching. Between 2004 and 2005, for example, worldwide TDM system revenue fell by 15 percent and IP PBX revenue rose by 23 percent, according to their latest Enterprise Telephony report. Taken together, worldwide TDM and IP PBX systems revenue amounted to $8.1 billion last year, a 12 percent increase over 2004's total. That's just the beginning. Between 2005 and 2009, aggregate telephony revenues will grow by as much as 43 percent (reaching approximately $11.6 billion), even though TDM-related revenues are expected to plunge. During that period, for example, IP PBX revenues could grow by up to 82 percent while TDM revenues could plunge by even more -- 88 percent. In the overall PBX/KTS systems market, Nortel, Avaya, Siemens, Alcatel and NEC (in succession) were tops last year in worldwide line shipments. Nortel led in North America, followed by Avaya and Cisco -- although the North American race, in particular, is still very close, Infonetics said. Elsewhere, last year Cisco dominated the market for IP phones with 42 percent unit market share.

Visit www.infonetics.com.

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News in Review

Applications

BlueNote Networks set to maximize cross-industry interoperability

BlueNote Networks has joined the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) VoX voice technology consortium to ensure that its products will interoperate flawlessly with diverse industry-standard telephony devices and data communications technologies. BlueNote will test its SessionSuite IP Telephony products for conformance to engineering standards and cross-platform, multi-vendor interoperability in the UNH-IOL VoX Consortium test bed. SessionSuite IP Telephony enables universal communications over conventional or next-generation networks using distributed, modular software components that integrate with an enterprise's existing back-office directory, database, authentication, authorization and accounting services. The UNH-IOL's VoX Consortium tests SIP-based software and hardware for conformance and interoperability.

Visit www.bluenotenetworks.com or http://www.iol.unh.edu/consortiums/vox.

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Contact center

Leveraging existing investment critical to IP telephony adoption in customer service
Most customer service organizations are poised to invest heavily in IP telephony (IPT) in the call center in the next three years, but only if they are able to leverage their existing software and telephony equipment, according to a new survey of global enterprises sponsored by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company. Summarizing the findings, Wes Hayden, Genesys CEO said, "Clearly IPT is gaining momentum, however, customer service organiza-tions have very different needs than the enterprise as a whole. It's not 'if' but 'how' IPT is embraced that is the most critical issue for customer service organizations." Respondents indicated a strong preference for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Open IP standards, which allow them to leverage their existing investments while migrating to non-proprietary solutions. Open IP was highly regarded because of its ability to provide on-going interoperability between key business applications, databases and telephony equipment. The survey is part of the "Contact Center Realities" survey that Genesys conducts regularly on key issues impacting customer service organizations. As the leading provider of open software for enterprise interaction management, Genesys enables contact centers to leverage equipment and software from virtually any major provider.

Visit www.genesyslab.com or www.ipcontactcenter.net.

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Markets

Siemens enters U.S. Carrier Ethernet market
Siemens Communications Inc. introduced its SURPASS hiD Carrier Ethernet products in the United States, already in deployment by more than 10 operators throughout Asia and Europe, including at Deutsche Telekom where Siemens' carrier Ethernet switches support the operator's television and video services. Designed to meet the challenges of triple-play residential services and Ethernet-based enterprise services, the SURPASS hiD Carrier Ethernet platform introduces a hybrid architecture of Enhanced Ethernet and Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technologies. The platform helps ensure operational efficiency and end-to-end Hierarchical Quality of Service (HQoS) per service and per subscriber, with sub-50 milliseconds resiliency. The hybrid Ethernet/MPLS architecture helps to enable scalability and 99.999 (5-nines) percent service availability with synchronous optical network (SONET)-like restoration, including hard QoS for real-time applications. The SURPASS hiD Carrier Ethernet product suite is also compliant with Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF9) specifications and with Network Equipment-Building System Level 3 guidelines applied to telecommunications equipment in the United States. The SURPASS hiD portfolio offers complete provisioning capability, including service activation, resource management and service assurance.

Visit www.siemens.com.

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OEM Roundup

Avaya

Esnatech unveils IP integration with Avaya’s IP office communication solution

Esnatech, a provider of enterprise Real-Time communications solutions, announced its new release of Telephony Office-LinX small business solution introducing IP integration to Avaya’s IP office communication solution. Esnatech’s Small Business Edition (SBE) is a next-generation small business real-time communications platform integrated into an organization’s telephony network. The release of IP integration with Avaya’s IP office will provide small business organizations a truly Unified Communications platform integrating IP telephony with integrated IP applications targeted specifically for the small business marketplace. As an Avaya Development Connect partner, Esnatech is applying for innovator status in order to properly test and verify their solution in the Avaya labs. With the success of verification, Esnatech will be releasing the IP office integration to IP office partners across North America.
Visit www.avaya.com or www.esnatech.com.

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Cisco

Cisco recognizes Global Knowledge as top training provider

Global Knowledge, a provider of information technology training services, was recognized recently as Cisco Systems’ Learning Solutions Partner of the Year. "We are proud and honored to be recognized by Cisco Systems for our dedication to providing exceptional training and learning solutions to Cisco's customers, employees, sales channels and associate sales engineers around the globe," said Joseph Cece, chief executive officer and president of Global Knowledge. Global Knowledge offers training in Internet Protocol communications, security, wireless and networking in addition to sales and project management.

Visit www.cisco.com or www.globalknowledge.com.

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NEC

NEC profiles complete suite of converged communications solutions

At the VoiceCon Spring 2006 conference, NEC Unified Solutions, Inc. launched its enhanced managed and professional service offerings, which includes NEC Secure Remote Management Services and NEC Secure Threat Management Services. Intended for organizations of all sizes, these enhanced service solutions are designed to ensure application and hardware availability by remotely managing all components of an organization's voice and data infrastructure and extending its security capabilities. The new services provide organizations with an end-to-end solution set that assists them through every stage of the IP telephony lifecycle. NEC also displayed the UNIVERGE hybrid and server-based IP communications platform, including the award-winning SV7000 MPS and the NEAX 2000 IPS. Additionally, NEC highlighted its complete suite of unified communications applications including the industry renowned OpenWorX Communications Portal, the fully featured Q-Master multimedia contact center solution and NEC's MA4000 system management application. The Electra Elite IPK II, the latest converged communications platform for the small-to-medium business market, was featured along with NEC's innovative wireless solutions and terminals.

Visit www.necunified.com.

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Nortel

Nortel IPTV advancements power conver-gence of entertainment, communications
Nortel is using its industry leadership in SIP-based services and its breadth of solutions across IMS, broadband and VoIP to develop new IPTV services and functionality that can dramatically change the way people use their TVs for both entertainment and communications. At its IPTV lab in Ottawa, Nortel is demonstrating the delivery of IPTV services over Nortel's IMS infrastructure, the first step for enabling telcos to create personalized IPTV services across wireline and wireless networks that helps to provide long-term differen-tiation from competitive offerings. Demonstrated services include mobile-to-TV picture sharing, on-screen instant messaging and presence, and click-to-call functionality. "IPTV is a key investment area for Nortel, and the integration of IPTV services within an IMS infrastructure is a fundamental part of our IPTV strategy," said Walt Megura, general manager, Broadband Networks, Nortel. "We are also concentrating our efforts on enabling new IPTV services that take full advantage of our industry-leading SIP capabilities."

Visit www.nortel.com.

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Siemens

Siemens launches new IMS fixed-mobile convergence solution
Siemens Communications announced a new version of its Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS)-based fixed mobile convergence (FMC) solution with a deployment model supporting the enterprise market, the consumer cable operator market as well as the fixed/mobile telephony market. Enhanced by a number of global and U.S. IMS/FMC trials with a range of service providers over the last year, Siemens is leveraging its multi-industry expertise to enable barrier-free multimedia service delivery, independent of device preferences. The Siemens IMS/FMC solution features transparent roaming and active handoffs across fixed and mobile networks. The solution includes personalized multimedia services and - for enterprises - presence-aware collaboration technologies that help improve workflow and business process efficiencies. Available in the spring, the Siemens IMS/FMC solution complies with the NCS cable standard, allowing full support of IMS and PacketCable services within one service network infrastructure.

Visit www.siemens.com.

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The Flag: EU & International Telecom News for IATD Members

Telstra Europe taps Vistula for its V-Cube IP-PBX platform

VoIP service supplier Vistula Communications Inc. announced that Telstra Europe deployed Vistula's V-Cube IP-PBX platform for telephony at its new Internet data center at St. John's Innovation Park in Cambridge, UK. Telstra Europe's Cambridge data center provides a suite of hosting and security services from collocation to business continuity and disaster recovery. Vistula's V-Cube IP PBX will be used for telephony for the personnel within the data center and it will also be the core of Telstra's IP PBX managed service offering to their customers. According to a recent study conducted by research firm Dell'Oro, IP PBX sales are expected to grow three-fold from 2005-2010, to reach $2 billion. Analysts believe that for the recent future, hybrid systems are projected to lead the market among the different types of PBX types. IP phone revenues are expected to reach $4 billion in 2010, driven largely by the growing popularity of IP Centrex services and upgrades from handsets.

Visit http://www.telstra.co.uk or http://www.vistula.com.