3G. Wireless Communication Solutions

Avaya will soon transform from a VoIP solutions provider to a VoIP services provider. Sometime this week, Avaya will launch the Avaya On Demand service, which Avaya’s channel partners, including XO Communications, Sprint and Cross Telecom will host.

Based on Avaya’s Communications Manager IP PBX platform the hosted VoIP service starts at $25 per month per user. The service has 700 call features. It supports onsite IP phones and gateways, including call processing and public switched telephone network (PSTN) termination in the hosting company’s data center.

It will cost $5 per month extra for a voice mailbox add-on. Avaya also offers a Contact Center On Demand for small and medium sized businesses and costs from $50 to $150 per month per agent.

Avaya plans to launch MultiVantage Express - an all-in-one IP PBX, messaging server and gateway. The company also plans to introduce the S8400 Media Server - a Linux-based blade server card that slides into legacy PBX or gateway voice equipment, converting the gear to IP.

MultiVantage Express comes on a Linux-based appliance and includes Communications Manager IP PBX software, Audix voice mail and desktop-management applications, IP softphone support, autoattendant features and limited call center capabilities for up to 50 agents.

The S8400 Media Server card fits into either a Definity Prologix PBX chassis or a G645 gateway. The blade runs Avaya’s Linux-based operating system and Communication Manager 3.1, with support for as many as 900 phone lines and 400 IP trunks. The card also can support digital phones still attached to line cards in the Prologix or G650 chassis, as well as any IP phone or endpoint from Avaya or its partners.

Read more: Avaya hosted VoIP service

Forrester Research’s latest report, “Fixed- Mobile Services Will Lead Technology Convergence,” more than 50 percent of 615 companies surveyed by the analysts showed a keen interest in dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi phone sets. It must be borne in mind that these handsets have not yet been introduced in the market.

Verizon with its EVDO 3G service. Then there is the behemoth, AT&T’s branded mobile services on Cingular Wireless’ network Forrester Research predicts that by 2008, big system integrators like EDS to join the fixed-mobile business, aiming straight for the business end of the market.

Also, we expect to see mobile operators deliver their IP Multimedia Subsystem-based (IMS-based) services. IMS is a bugaboo of a specification based on SIP (another bugaboo) that will enable service providers to deliver Centrex-like services to mobile phone users. And there’s the beast. With Verizon equipping you with a mobile phone with all of your business telephony features, why purchase a telephony server?

Read more Fixed, Mobile and VoIP Technologies Convergence