Ericsson, Polycom announce HD UC soln

BANGALORE, INDIA: Unified communications solutions provider Polycom and telecom networking equipment maker Ericsson will launch interoperable HD video-as-a-service (VaaS) and unified communication services at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012.

The new visual communication solution for service providers will leaverage Ericsson's video-enabled IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) offering, including HD-capable infrastructure, as well as Polycom RealPresence video and voice endpoints and the RealPresence platform.

"Today's announcement is another step toward our vision to make video collaboration ubiquitous. Following on the January announcement of our cloud strategy, Polycom is excited to collaborate with an IMS leader like Ericsson to deliver standards-based, interoperable solutions that will enable service providers to offer compelling and cost-effective Video-as-a-Service solutions to their customers," said Gary Testa, Vice President, Global Cloud & Service Provider Solutions, Polycom.

The Ericsson IMS system provides synergies for operators by using the same IMS core for the visual communication solution as for voice over LTE (VoLTE), rich communication suite (RCS) and fixed network modernization.

Moreover, the unique open-standards approach of Polycom RealPresence Platform ensures interoperability with hundreds of UC, business, and social networking applications, bridging silos, and truly unifying communications across the enterprise.

It will also incorporate Ericsson's solution for unified communication, the Ericsson Business Communication Suite.

Magnus Furustam, Vice President and Head of Core and IMS at Ericsson, said: "We have worked collaboratively with Polycom since announcing our partnership at last year's show, and are now pleased to launch and showcase our joint video conferencing solution for business users. With our leading market presence in IMS and mobile networks we provide a smooth path to enable the networks for HD visual and audio communication. We believe our solution to be very attractive to business users and an industry first with a very compelling value proposition to operators."

Customer trials of the joint solution will commence mid-2012, with general availability at the end of 2012.