SBC Communications awarded a five year contract to Siemens Information and Communication Networks (Siemens ICN) to provide the next-generation delivery platform for the recently announced SBC PremierSERV Hosted IP Communication Service. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Siemens is providing an integrated solution which includes Siemens Surpass Softswitch, Sylantro's feature server and elements provided by other major name providers in the industry. The platform will enable multimedia communications, multiparty collaboration, unified voice-to-text and text-to- voice messaging, as well as click-to-dial, call management, and integration with Microsoft Outlook, and other multimedia applications.
Siemens' SURPASS portfolio of next-generation, standards-based IP solutions also includes the SURPASS hiQ softswitch and the SURPASS hiG media gateway. The company's worldwide center of competency for next-generation switching and applications is Siemens Network Convergence LLC, located in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. http://www.siemens.com/surpass
- In November 2003, in what it described as "perhaps the most substantial technological advance in telecommunications in 100 years," SBC Communications introduced a new range of enterprise IP services, including a hosted VoIP service aimed at small to medium-sized businesses. SBC's Hosted IP Communication Service will use a Web interface for managing a full suite of unified messaging features. These will include voice mail, e-mail, "find me, follow me," click-to-call, conferencing and other applications. Users can plug in their IP devices, including IP-enabled phones, from anywhere within a corporate network, or from any broadband connection. At the time of the announcement, SBC said the service was being launched in select markets across the country. SBC also promised to make the hosted service available in cities nationwide by the end of 2004.
- Also in November 2003, Randall Stephenson, Senior Executive VP & CFO of SBC Communications, confirmed that SBC was developing its own consumer VoIP service, which it will launch "when market demand develops."
- In September 2003, Level 3 Communications announced that it would be providing its new, wholesale (3)Tone hosted telephony service to SBC Communications (and to about 20 other carriers). The (3)Tone service is a version of the suite of services Level 3 obtained through its acquisition of Telverse Communications. It is aimed at small to medium-sized enterprises interested in replacing their PBX, IP PBX, and Centrex Systems with an outsourced service.
