Verizon Business has teamed up with Nortel Networks to offer a managed telepresence service that will be part of the carrier's unified communications strategy. The service, "provides complete setup and management of telepresence conferences, including pre-connected and configured video circuits, and the ability for users to make conference reservations online," according to a Verizon press release.
The telco is making use of Nortel global infrastructure of Multimedia Network Operations Centers (MNOCs), and it uses the vendor's video-bridging and gateway services to create interoperability. The deal is especially significant for Nortel, as it looks for bright spots following a weak third quarter that included announcement of further jobs cuts. The company has been active in the telepresence sector from early on, and this carrier announcement is the latest in a handful of high-profile deals.
It has been a big week for telepresence, as several publications also reported that Cisco Systems is now eyeing a potential consumer market for the technology a year or so from now.
For more:
- here's the Verizon press release [1]
- here's the Nortel press release [2]
Related article
BT announced inter-company telepresence last month [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.verizonbusiness.com/about/news/displaynews.xml?newsid=25216&mode=vzlong&lang=en&width=530
[2] http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0452153.htm
[3] http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/bt-tandberg-make-telepresence-moves/2008-10-02