IT User News

For information email ann.lui@rbc.com

Company News

Bell Canada (BC), in conjunction with Aliant and Bell West, announced that it is teaming up with Nortel to build Canada's most advanced Next Generation Network based on Internet Protocol (IP). Through a comprehensive agreement with Nortel that includes a joint research and development initiative, BC will deliver the latest IP telephony and multimedia applications and services, providing simplified communications that increase customers' functionality, mobility and productivity.

Initially, BC plans to invest CDN$200M (approximately US$146M) over three years in Nortel technology to provide new services to its large enterprise customers. Bell also intends to expand this new infrastructure to enable the delivery of Next Generation services to its small and medium business customers.

Bell and Nortel also plan to create an Innovation Centre in Ottawa focused on creating new services based on IP Telephony and multimedia standards, while working with third parties to address compatibility issues and increase the speed-to-market for new applications. The Centre will initially focus on new voice and multimedia applications over both wireline and wireless facilities. Specifically, the service will be designed for a hosted IP network infrastructure.

Product News

Nortel has introduced Business Communications Manager (BCM) Release 3.0, which adds interactive voice response (IVR), IPSec client support, increased TDM station capacity and other enhancements. It is the only converged voice and data solution that gives small- to medium-sized businesses and branch offices a choice of either an IP-enabled or pure-IP strategy. This platform integrates KSU/PBX, VoIP gateway and Quality of Service data routing capabilities in a single, cost-effective solution. Release 3.0 introduces significant enhancements to the platform's functionality including IVR, IPSec Client Termination, Increased TDM Station Capacity, and a Network Configuration Manager.

Other features include advanced telephony routing; enhanced Call Detail Recording (CDR) with pull functionality, allowing the customer to automatically retrieve CDR records; silent monitor for call centers and hunt groups, providing supervisors with the ability to silently monitor incoming calls; an administrative edition of Desktop Assistant Pro that allows a system administrator to configure any set on the system remotely; and a client diagnostic tool for the i2050 SoftPhone.