LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. -- Nortel and Research in Motion (RIM) announced a partnership where users will be able to run Nortel's converged voice/data applications on a new Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry handheld device.

Announced at the VoiceCon show this week, the partnership will integrate Nortel's Multimedia Communications Server (MCS) 5100 with RIM's new BlackBerry 7270 device, allowing users with a Nortel-based wireless infrastructure and MCS platform to use the BlackBerry as a wireless VoIP phone, as well as a client for instant messaging and presence applications.

"We basically ripped out the cellular radio in the BlackBerry and replaced it with an 802.11 radio," says Don McMurtry, vice president of sales with RIM. The BlackBerry 7072 is in beta release and not yet available, he said. This new BlackBerry, loaded with Nortel client software, would allow users to roam throughout a campus while using converged applications, the two vendors say.

Nortel's MCS is a SIP-based application server that works with Nortel TDM- or IP-based PBXs to deliver applications such as voice and video conferencing, presence management and instant messaging capabilities. The two-company agreement will allow Nortel's MCS client to run on the new Blackberry 7072. The MCS client is currently available for RIM's cellular-based BlackBerry devices.

While availability for a Nortel/BlackBerry product package was not announced, both vendors say such a product can be expected sometime this year. Both vendors say they are also working on technology for integrating wide-area and campus wireless LAN handoffs of BlackBerry/Nortel voice and data sessions, as well as possible integration with Nortel's wireless mesh network technology for wide-area WLAN coverage.

Security in a Nortel/BlackBerry environment would involve layers: encryption of BlackBerry data running over a Nortel Contivity-based VPN, layered over a WLAN infrastructure.

Nortel says the campus-based BlackBerry/Nortel network could run on either Nortel-based WLAN equipment, or standard 802.11b-based network infrastructure.