NexTone Communications and ReefPoint Systems, two smaller vendors of converged network gear who have managed to survive earlier rounds of industry consolidation, announced they are merging. The new company will be called NextPoint Networks (wow, a pretty obvious, balanced choice for a new name that's probably better than both of the old names-how often does that happen?). The merging companies are getting a $20 million investment from JP Morgan Chase and others, and the match of NexTone's session border controller with ReefPoint's convergence security gateway should be a natural one that allows easier shopping for carriers looking gear to support their fixed-mobile convergence ambitions.
Meanwhile, despite some progress this year, FMC isn't changing the world just yet.
For more:
- see this story in Light Reading
- read this piece in Network World about the long wait for FMC
Related articles:
- Unlicensed Mobile Access is a key FMC technology