BURLINGTON, USA: Acme Packet, the leader in session border control solutions, today announced that LightEdge, the leading hosted services provider dedicated to the communications and IT needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), has deployed Acme Packet’s Net-Net session border controller (SBC) to deliver its recently-announced Hosted Unified Communications, a new service based on BroadSoft’s BroadWorks Voice-over-IP (VoIP) application platform as well as Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration.

LightEdge deployed Acme Packet SBCs to simplify new customer activation and enable “click-to-call” functionality in tandem with the BroadSoft platform.

The LightEdge service provides one platform for voice, email, instant messaging and calendaring, allowing a user to collaborate in real-time within the office and outside the office. Hosted Unified Communications is part of the LightEdge Connected Office suite of products, and helps SMBs more easily and cost-effectively obtain unified communications (UC) as a hosted service.

LightEdge Connected Office suite includes Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 for hosted email, BroadSoft BroadWorks Hosted PBX VoIP, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 for instant messaging and presence, Microsoft Live Meeting and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. The solution can be purchased incrementally or as an entire integrated bundle to support a business’ e-mail, calendaring, conferencing, voice and collaboration needs.

Acme Packet’s Net-Net SBC was deployed in the LightEdge network to help simplify the process of activating new customers. The SBC's ability to enable seamless communications for LightEdge customers by mediating and controlling signaling flows between SIP phones and LightEdge service elements reduces interoperability issues, leading to shorter service activation cycles with fewer trouble tickets and higher customer satisfaction.

The Net-Net SBC also works in tandem with the BroadSoft platform to enable “click-to-call,” a feature of the LightEdge service that provides end users with the ability to initiate or receive VoIP calls simply by clicking a button on their desktop. Because the Acme Packet SBC can effectively manipulate SIP messages, LightEdge can offer click-to-call or other features that boost productivity and improve the business communications experience for LightEdge customers.

“Our customers expect strong ease of use from our Hosted Unified Communications service,” said Jeff Springborn, president and COO of LightEdge. “Acme Packet’s SBCs enable that while giving us the ability to offer a very high-quality integrated user experience.”

“The integration of hosted voice with existing desktop applications offers a huge opportunity for increasing overall business efficiency,” said Dino Di Palma, vice president of sales and business development at Acme Packet. “LightEdge’s use of our SBCs further validates the business benefits of supplementing basic VoIP and UC functions with advanced session border control.”