Users may have to take Nortel-Avaya call
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(InfoWorld) - An acquisition of Avaya by Nortel might help the buyer expand its enterprise telephony business and pare down a crowded industry, but the deal could be tough for customers. Avaya is in talks with possible buyers and recently discussed a possible deal with Nortel, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Together, the companies would become the world's biggest vendor of telephony gear with as much as 35 percent of the market in its home base of North America, according to analyst Inder Singh of Prudential Equity Group. "Anywhere you look, they would become the dominant vendor," Singh said. Nortel, still emerging from years of accounting scandals and reorganizations, could use Avaya to boost its enterprise business, which delivers higher margins than its carrier network side, according to Singh. Because the companies have many similar products, the deal might also help Nortel cut costs by eliminating redundancies, he added. But for customers, the combination might not be such a good deal. Although Nortel is a bigger company, Avaya is the stronger of the two in IP telephony, which is where enterprise phone systems are going. Integration with Nortel and its unified communications partner, Microsoft, would cause a lot of confusion for customers, said Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala. Avaya has made great technical strides recently, especially in software, he said. "Darwin should take over here and let the strongest survive," Kerravala said. One possible benefit to customers would be a one-stop shop with a strong telephony lineup as well as enterprise data networking gear, such as switches, which Avaya lacks, said Dell'Oro Group analyst Alan Weckel. Even if Nortel doesn't buy Avaya, analysts see acquisitions on the horizon in the industry. Enterprise telephony is a fragmented business: In 2006, in terms of numbers of lines installed, Nortel had 13.4 percent of the market, Avaya 11.6 percent and Cisco Systems Inc. 8.5 percent, according to Weckel. It takes a big vendor to keep up with the new features enterprises will seek as traditional phone systems give way to IP telephony and unified communications with its combination of voice, text, videoconferencing, and mobility, Weckel said. There also won't be room for as many companies in the next several years because even as IP telephony spending grows at 40 percent per year, revenue from traditional phone systems is falling as much as 15 percent, creating lackluster growth overall, Prudential's Singh said. Meanwhile, Cisco, which isn't saddled with a legacy equipment business, keeps growing. Though some observers have downplayed Nortel's unified communications partnership with Microsoft, which also has interoperability relationships with Cisco and other vendors, Singh believes that could be the factor that makes such a deal significant. Nortel and Microsoft are sharing software and doing joint development through a deal announced last year. "It would be industry-game-changing if you had these three companies lined up on one side with Cisco on the other side," Singh said.
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Swing-state voters might want to let  the answering machine screen their calls over the next several  weeks -- President Bush or Sen. John Kerry could be on the  line.
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Results also show that many are willing to switch to AT&T to get their hands on one.
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The IP wars continue this week with Avaya, now a privately held rather than public company, announcing Avaya Communications Manager 5.0 and new customer service solutions, including a SIP-enabled handset for CSRs (customer service representatives). Communications Manager 5.0 is a full, rather than a point, upgrade to Avaya's main telephony and communications platform. The new version takes the technology from IP to SIP and adds a number of new capabilities."We are taking this version from the service provider trunk all the way to the desktop with a purpose-built SIP contact center phone," said Colleen Aguirre, director, product management for Customer Service applications.The SIP-enabled phone, Avaya Agent Deskphone 16CC, has a list price of $355.The transition of contact centers to IP-enabled centers has been ongoing, said Aguirre. "It flattens out networks and allows for consolidation of servers."The next step from IP to SIP protocol will add additional such capabilities as presence detection while giving contact center managers increased flexibility. For example, version 5.0 of Communications Manager will allow agents to transfer customer data along with a call. The 5.0 upgrade also automates and equalizes the distribution of calls to CSRs and allows agents and managers to evaluate agent availability. "We translated all of that information into the SIP protocol," Aguirre said.While Cisco does not have a SIP-handset and its software still requires middleware translation software, an all-SIP-based solution does not require middleware.Jay Lassman, research director for Communications Applications at Gartner said, Avaya is positioning itself for compatibility with unified communications solutions. "They seem to be on a very aggressive path toward positioning their users for future SIP interoperability," said Lassman.
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Cell phones may be the next battleground for companies offering internet phone services that don't depend on your desktop and router. By Randy Dotinga.
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Major mobile voice and data carriers in the United States have pledged to open their networks to outside handsets and applications, but regulators and customers need to be vigilant to make sure those promises are fulfilled, one member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said.Carriers including AT&amp;T and Verizon Wireless have promised to open up their networks, but the FCC will need to watch the prices that carriers charge customers who bring their own devices to the networks, said the FCC&#39;s Michael Copps, speaking Tuesday at a New America Foundation forum. The FCC will also need to monitor the complexity of certification for new devices and applications, he said.Mobile carriers still dictate what features can be used on most phones, with Wi-Fi features unavailable on most U.S. mobile phones because of carrier opposition, Copps said. The FCC needs &quot;trust but verify&quot; the open network promises from the carriers, Copps said.&quot;I hope it is as good as it sounds,&quot; he added. The FCC should step in if the carriers don&#39;t live up to their promises, Copps added.Carriers have in recent months taken steps to block text messages and some types of applications, Copps added. They need to pledge to &quot;no blocking, no locking, and no discriminatory degradation of service,&quot; he said.Copps, a Democrat, seemed to disagree with the FCC&#39;s Republican chairman Kevin Martin, who was quoted in The New York Times as saying the issue of open networks has &quot;melted away&quot; as AT&amp;T, Verizon Wireless, and other carriers have moved to open their networks.Advocates have been pushing for customers to be able to take their mobile devices from carrier to carrier for about a year. Weeks after&#160;Google announced its Open Handset Alliance&#160;in November,&#160;Verizon Wireless announced it would open its network&#160;to outside devices and applications by the end of this year.About a week after the Verizon announcement, AT&amp;T announced that it&#39;s long been its policy to allow outside devices and applications onto its mobile network.But Copps and critics of the carriers said Tuesday it&#39;s too early to tell if the carriers are serious about open networks. For example, mobile carriers could discourage customers from bringing their own devices by charging higher prices, Copps said.Carriers have often argued that they need to sign up customers using lengthy contracts because they&#39;re subsidizing the cost of a mobile phone. But if customers bring their own phones, there&#39;s no carrier subsidy, so&#160;the plan should cost less, said Robert Frieden, a professor of telecommunications and law at Penn State University.Right now, &quot;you don&#39;t get a discount for bringing your own phone,&quot; said Frieden, author of a New America Foundation paper calling on the FCC to regulate open network access.Some of the same companies pledged to offer stand-alone DSL service more than three years ago, and in many cases, customers have to fight through layers of customer service to get DSL without accompanying wireline phone service, added Christopher Libertelli, senior director for regulatory and government affairs at Skype.A Skype handset that allows calls to be made over Wi-Fi or a mobile network is available in parts of Europe and in Hong Kong but not the United States because carriers have opposed it, he said.&quot;Sitting here, we can&#39;t predict how these press release will turn into real consumer rights,&quot; Libertelli said.But representatives of Verizon Wireless, AT&amp;T, and T-Mobile said they were serious about offering customers choices of devices and applications.Verizon Wireless wants to encourage new types of devices and work with developers and handset makers to create innovation, said Anthony Lewis, vice president of the company&#39;s Open Development Initiative. &quot;This will not work if I dictate to my customers,&quot; he said.AT&amp;T will monitor devices for bandwidth hogging and security, but otherwise, the company is open to outside devices, said Robert Quinn Jr., AT&amp;T&#39;s senior vice president for federal regulatory affairs. AT&amp;T customers want to be able to use more devices on the network, he said.Asked, however, if AT&amp;T would unlock Apple&#39;s iPhone to use on other networks, Quinn said the company couldn&#39;t do that.
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NEW YORK  - Are cellphone companies using their sway over handset makers to unfairly limit consumers&#39; choices? Skype, a pioneer in PC-to-PC calling, thinks so, and it wants the Federal Communications Commission to do something about it.  In a blistering filing with the FCC, Skype basically accused Verizon Wireless and other big carriers of holding their customers hostage because most cellphones sold in the USA are &quot;locked,&quot; meaning you can only use applications and features sold by your carrier.
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AT&T suffered a computer glitch that resulted in double billing of customers on Jan. 16 and 17, although the company is offering few details on what happened.
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Telecom manufacturer Avaya has been targeted for a buyout by a private equity firm and rival Nortel.
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By Anna Marie Kukec Daily Herald Business Writer  Making a telephone call through the Internet is a lot like the Wild West.  The technology is still in its infancy.
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Companies trying to deploy Internet phone calling face varied costs depending on the technology provider, according to a report.
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although they wouldn&#39;t know it from watching the company&#39;s commercials or shopping in its stores. The cell phone provider is expected
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Company pursuing different wholesale access rates to its local phone network for Net phone providers.
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EarthLink is offering free VoIP calling as an incentive to sign up for its high-speed Internet service. The free service is available to the company&#39;s million-plus broadband customers.
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Some users of the new operating system are having a tough time connecting to the virtual world.
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$8bn wedding ring Avaya is close to selling itself to private equity firms Silver Lake partners and Texas Pacific Group for more than $8bn, bumping Nortel as top bidder.â¦
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When it comes to net neutrality, telecom and Internet companies may be asking for it.