* Unified communications deployments are being affected by current economic conditions
* IBM and Microsoft committed to improving interdomain interoperability
* VoiceCon announcements from ShoreTel, Marshall Electronics' MXL Technology Division, Polycom, Vixxi Solutions, and VoIPshield Systems
* VoiceCon announcements from Mindsharp, NetIQ, NetQos, and Psytechnics
*Aspect claims tight integration with Microsoft OCS
* Fixed-mobile convergence progress as AT&T, Verizon disclose femtocell plans
* Current Analysis ranks Acme Packet’s Net-Net 4000 family first among its peers for IMS and protocol support
* Covad Integrated Access service is delivered over a T-1 line
* Nortel aims BCM 450 at midsize businesses; Sylantro's Synergy available on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud; IMS and NGN forums merge
* BroadSoft and Microsoft aimed hosted UC service at midsize businesses; Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 delivers software-powered voice