* Avaya responds to questions about its commitment to open standards
Last week, we printed a reader’s question that challenged the commitment that Avaya, Nortel and Cisco have to open VoIP standards. We’ve had some pretty pointed e-mails from other readers on both sides of this issue over the past few days, so, as planned for the next three editions we’d like the vendors to answer our readers directly. Today, we’ll pass along Avaya’s comments in a statement prepared by the company.
According to Avaya, “Every vendor espouses a commitment to openness, and does what it has to do to best serve its customers. The degree to which the vendor implements open interfaces and practices is based on its theory of business. Avaya believes that shareholders and customers are served best when they have choices and open and standard interfaces provide choice. Avaya supports SIP protocol on all of its IP phones, regardless of price. Once a customer buys an Avaya phone, they are can download the phone firmware including the SIP version here.
“This is true of all price models and it is independent of how the customer chooses to obtain their support services. Avaya goes beyond making the software available for download and supports customers with testing and application notes including interoperability documents for competitors’ products. Many of these documents can be found under the ‘resources’ tab for each product family. For example, readers can find interoperability documents for IP phones (4600 Series IP Telephones ; Communication Manager).
“In summary, Avaya is committed to open and standard based interfaces in practice and without strings.”
Next time, we’ll hear from Cisco and then next week, we’ll print Nortel’s direct reply along with some other readers’ comments. If you’d like to join in our discussion, please drop us a line at the e-mail address listed in our bio below.
