Nortel Pumps UC with AT&T

Nortel Networks, fresh from a re-examination of its lines of business, is making promised strides in one of its key focus areas: business services. On Thursday the vendor released two sizes of the Nortel Business Services Gateway for lower-cost unified communications and VoIP for small and medium businesses. It also revealed that AT&T Inc. has become a reseller for Nortel’s SMB-focused Business Communications Manager.

The Business Services Gateways 8 and 12 are carrier VoIP solutions designed to simplify the development of hosted services for SMB customers with up to 300 employees. They combine multiple equipment and software within a single solution by including: a router; advanced security including firewall; VPN and intrusion detection; wired and wireless switching; a resilient SIP gateway with an integrated Analog Telephony Adapter; and application-aware QoS. Nortel said the single solution approach is up to 45 percent less expensive than purchasing all of these software and components separately.

Meanwhile, AT&T is reselling Nortel’s Business Communications Manager along with its own network services to offer a low-cost solution for smaller companies.

Nortel estimates the SMB market to be valued at $11 billion and growing at an annual rate of 9.3 percent annually.

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