Avaya to announce service for hosted VoIP

Avaya this week is expected to announce at Interop a hosted IP telephony service, with options for messaging and call center applications.

The Avaya On Demand service, to be hosted by the company's channel partners, service providers or Avaya, will provide IP telephony, messaging and call center applications.

Starting at $25 per month per user, customers will be able to receive a service based on Avaya's Communications Manager IP PBX platform, with 700 call features, according to Avaya product description material. The service supports onsite IP phones and gateways, with call processing and public switched telephone network (PSTN) termination in the hosting company's data center. Among the North American providers slated to offer the service are XO Communications, Sprint and Cross Telecom, according to Avaya documents.

Customers can pay an additional $5 per month for a voice mailbox add-on. For midsize companies looking for outsourced call center applications, a Contact Center On Demand offering will be available for $50 to $150 per month per agent. The hosted service provides call routing, a self-service voice-response portal for customers, and reporting services. Gateways, IP phones, softphone clients and other related applications and software are provided to onsite client machines.

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.

Siemens thinks small

Also focusing on smaller deployments is Siemens, which is set to launch its BizIP offering for small offices. The product includes SIP-based, peer-to-peer IP phones and a broadband router/firewall/VoIP and PSTN gateway; the BizIP AD 20, plugs into a broadband cable modem or DSL link and provides Power over Ethernet LAN links to the BizIP410e phones. The BizIP AD 20 also can connect to an ISDN link for PSTN connectivity - in case the IP connection to a provider fails. Call control and PSTN access over the IP network would be delivered by a VoIP service provider offering SIP-based trunks and direct inward dialing number services over IP.

Separately, Foundry is expected to launch a Voice-over-WLAN controller and access point package. The IronPoint Mobility Controller is an appliance that attaches to Foundry IronPoint 200 access points and provides QoS and fast connection hand-off services for voice-over-WLAN clients, , such as 802.11 IP phones and handheld devices running softphone applications. The devices can detect H.323 and Session Initiation Protocol traffic and provide default packet prioritization for the VoIP traffic streams. Up to 30 wireless VoIP connections can attach to an IronPoint 200 AP when linked to the controller, Foundry says. The Mobility Controller starts at $2,800, and the access points cost $700.