Wireless security vendor Bluesocket has bought open source IP PBX maker Pingtel in hopes of creating a platform that will let customers inexpensively blend mobile and fixed wireless voice gear.

With the acquisition, Bluesocket has the technology to make devices for midsize companies that quickly integrate wired, wireless and voice networks to streamline infrastructure. Bluesocket says in announcing the purchase that it plans to create such devices and provide them to other vendors as the OEM.

Bluesocket will also extend this to small businesses that want to unify their voice and data networks based on standardized gear.

"The opportunity lies in the fact that the wireless LAN and unified communications markets are converging, Mads Lillelund, Bluesocket’s CEO, wrote in a statement. "As a result of this acquisition, we are better positioned to deliver an integrated solution that meets the mobility needs of customers across a variety of industries.”

The company says it will focus on handing off cellular phone calls to Wi-Fi networks and vice versa as a way for businesses to save on cellular costs when end users make wireless calls within corporate campuses.

Bluesocket says it will continue support for Pingtel’s open source IP PBX, call-center server and presence-server projects that all operate under the umbrella name SIPfoundry.

No Pingtel employees will be laid off, and Bluesocket says it will boost its research-and-development funding to reach its fixed/mobile goals faster, Bluesocket says.

Pingtel has not been alone in making its IP PBX software public. Competitor Digium has done the same with its Asterisk platform. With $13.8 million in venture funding, Digium is looking for partners that can customize and add to its core platform to develop systems that could replicate what Bluesocket is shooting for.