Nokia, Alcatel extend PBX to cell phones
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(InfoWorld) - Nokia and Alcatel are jumping the gun on Wi-Fi phones that work like regular office handsets: They're offering the same capability on ordinary cell phones. The advent of VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) phones and IP PBXes (private branch exchanges) opened the door not only to business handsets that sat on a desk and sent packets around a wired LAN, but also to ones that could be carried around and use Wi-Fi. That can mean one handset for all business calls, anywhere in the enterprise, but that still leaves the employee's cell phone for use outside. Dual-mode cell and Wi-Fi devices are just starting to emerge, and moving between networks raises technical issues. By the end of the year, Nokia and Alcatel will offer software that makes Nokia Eseries cell phones, a line of smart phones designed for business, talk to the Alcatel IP Communication server. That means they can be used like a PBX-connected desk phone, with features such as call conferencing and dialing by name, the companies said. It also lets employees keep their desk phones, use just one number, and program which device they want to receive calls on at a given time. The system also lets cell phone users tap into Alcatel's Least Cost Routing capabilities, which can cut enterprise long-distance charges, and make cellular billing records easier to find, they said. In its first iteration, the Intellisync Call Connect for Alcatel software will make the phones talk to enterprise PBXes over the ordinary cell phone network. In the near future, it will support dual-mode phones, the companies said. Nokia, in Espoo, Finland, acquired Intellisync last year to gain a better foothold in enterprises. It also weighed in to that market on the hardware side last year when it unveiled the Eseries phones, which include a variety of business features including QWERTY keypads and support for business applications and mobile e-mail systems. Its E70 phone includes Wi-Fi as well as cellular radios. Alcatel, in Paris, is near to closing a merger with Lucent Technologies Inc. and recently agreed to buy the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) business of Nortel Networks Corp. Intellisync Call Connect for Alcatel is part of the Intellisync Mobile Suite from Nokia. It is set to become available through Nokia and Alcatel resellers in the fourth quarter. Pricing was not immediately available.
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A developer in Tokyo has created an add-on to Vodafone handsets that&#39;s meant to be used as a night filter to let people take pictures with their phones in the dark.
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The company said it has benefited from growing demand for handsets that work on the new higher-speed networks being introduced by carriers in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
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HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Nokia Corp. (NOK), the world&#39;s largest mobile phone maker, expects to launch more than 10 handset models operating on code division multiple access technology in 2005, a senior executive said Tuesday.
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Nokia unveiled a mobile phone for  business users on Thursday that incorporates a camera with a  megapixel resolution, beefing up a patchy handset portfolio  that has cost it market share.
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Nokia , the world's largest mobile phone maker, unveiled three new mobile handsets on Monday intended to boost its offering of mid-range phones and lift its global market share further from 36 percent.
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Mobile handset maker Nokia said Wednesday it has extended its partnership with Yahoo to incorporate the search giant's services on a select set of Nokia phones.
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PARIS, February 27  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and E-Plus announced today that the world's leading network integrator will be managing several network business divisions of Germany's third-largest mobile communications provider, E-Plus Mobilfunk.
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The companies want to create more consistent platforms that can be used with any handset.
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Leading mobile phone maker Nokia   said on Thursday it would introduce three new phone  models to its line-up, two of them mid-range and one at the  higher end of the market.
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Shares of Nokia (NOK1V.HE) are likely  to extend gains as the world&#39;s leading cell phone maker expands  its share of the growing global market, financial newspaper  Barron&#39;s reported in its September 17 edition.
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Cisco this week launched an upgrade to its CallManager IP PBX platform, broadening its encryption support for IP phones and other VoIP devices, such as VoIP gateways and voicemail servers.
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At the GSMA trade show in Barcelona, Spain, the latest high-end smartphones include Nokia's new flagship handset, the N96, a pair of impressive Cybershot camera phones from Sony Ericsson and more.
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Nokia started to roll out its N-Gage gaming service and Share on Ovi media sharing site as the cellphone maker expands into mobile Internet services.
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The consortium behind the Bluetooth wireless standard announced Tuesday that Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of cell phones, is contributing a technology that promises to bring the wireless connections to devices that are too small for regular Bluetooth chips.
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Nokia , the world's largest mobile phone maker, unveiled three new mobile handsets on Monday intended to boost its offering of mid-range phones and help lift its global market share.
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(InfoWorld) - NokiaÂ is enlisting systems integrators and value-added resellers in its drive to deliver more complete mobile systems to enterprises. The Nokia for Business Channel Program follows the mobile phone giant's expansion of its enterprise product line through the acquisition of Intellisync last year. Nokia has long sold security products through enterprise channels and its handsets through mobile operators and retail stores. The company announced Thursday it is expanding its business offerings with more mobile communications and IP (Internet Protocol) telephony products, including e-mail, device management and file synchronization products. Nokia got some channel partners through the Intellisync acquisition, but it wants to add more partners and make sure they are all qualified. The entry of more channel partners will give enterprises greater choice in whom to buy Nokia products from, said Mary McDowell, executive vice president and general manager of the company's enterprise solutions business. The partners can also deliver the type of support that enterprises are used to getting with complex systems, she said. Nokia wants to expand its enterprise scope beyond smartphones and e-mail to more complete mobility offerings supporting office phone systems and a variety of applications for use on the road. For example, it has partnerships with several vendorsÂ to make business-class eSeries Nokia phones work with those vendors' office phone systems. When an enterprise buys a set of handsets along with a service such as mobile e-mail, it's much more complicated than just getting phones and a calling plan, McDowell said. There is a server and software to install and integrate into the organization's security infrastructure, and a need for long-term IT support. Nokia wants systems integrators and resellers to fill that void. As part of its program, Nokia will train and certify channel partners and offer them incentives that are tied in part to how much help they give enterprises setting up new systems. The program will have three tracks. Mobility partners will be able to sell Intellisync Mobile Suite and other software for functions such as device management. Security partners will be licensed to resell firewall, IP VPN (virtual private network), intrusion prevention and other products. Voice partners will sell Nokia's enterprise voice systems. All the partners will be licensed to sell Nokia's eSeries business handsets, although Nokia expects most of its handset sales to continue going through operators and retail stores. Nokia will encourage partners to specialize in more than one track. There will also be two levels of certification, Authorized and Expert, with different levels of training provided by Nokia. The partners will get products through Nokia's authorized distributors. The Finnish mobile giant made the right decision to expand its channel instead of trying to build its own sales force, which is expensive and time-consuming, said Gartner Inc. wireless analyst Michael King. He applauded one feature of the program, a mechanism for enterprises to tell Nokia how good a job the systems integrator or reseller they are working with is doing. It's rare for a vendor to have this type of check on its channel partners, he said. Â