Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog

I was spekaing with Heather Howland and Theron Dodson of Ascendent� this past Tusday and they told me to watch out for� some big news. Looks like this is it! RIM Acquires Ascendent Systems �  Acquisition Enables RIM to Deliver Enhanced Voice Solutions to Enterprise Customers �  Research In Motion� just announced it has acquired Ascendent Systems, a provider of solutions that simplify voice mobility implementations in the enterprise. Ascendent, a member of the BlackBerry ISV Alliance Program, makes the Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite, a standards-based software solution that augments existing PBX (Private Branch Exchange) and IP-PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange) systems and supports heterogeneous telephony environments to "push" voice calls and extend corporate desk phone functionality to mobile users on their wireless handset or any wireline phone. Ascendent will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIM.

AT&T on Sunday agreed to acquire BellSouth Corp. for about $67 billion, to expand its reach into the southeastern United States and acquire the rest of Cingular Wireless it does not already own. The companies issued a press release outlining what they see as the main benefits of merging:

• Natural combination of two leading wireline providers and joint owners of Cingular speeds progress in integrated wireless/wireline services
• Substantial financial benefits for stockholders of both companies; an expected net present value of $18 billion in synergies resulting from a more than $2 billion annual run rate in synergies expected in 2008, growing to $3 billion in 2010
• Expect merger to be accretive to AT&T adjusted earnings per share in 2008, double-digit adjusted EPS growth in each of next three years (earnings adjusted for merger integration costs and amortization of intangibles) and significant growth in free cash flow after dividends in 2007 and 2008
• AT&T's board authorizes share repurchase of 400 million shares by end of 2008; buy back of at least $10 billion in shares over next 22 months planned, with the majority in 2007
• Merger will benefit customers and promote competition

According to the release, the merger will streamline the ownership and operations of Cingular Wireless, which is jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth. The new company will be more innovative, nimble and efficient, providing benefits to customers by combining the Cingular, BellSouth and AT&T networks into a single fully integrated wireless and wireline Internet Protocol network offering a full range of advanced solutions.

Yesterday, the MultiService Forum (MSF) held a press conference to outline the test frameworks for GMI 2006, its bi-annual global test event to be held in October 2006. Hosted by five of the world’s largest carriers (BT, KT, NTT, Verizon, and Vodafone as well as a state-of-the-art test facility at the University of New Hampshire) the event will comprise a large-scale, real network trial of the MSF IMS-compatible (IP Multimedia System) Release 3 architecture.

The GMI 2006 event is designed to bring together dozens of carriers and vendors to test the interoperability of IMS-based infrastructure components in a real-world setting. According to the MSF, GMI 2006 will provide a test-bed for the full spectrum of hardware, processes and services needed to assemble an effective next-generation delivery platform.

Two sets of numbers crossed my desk today. Looks like more evidence that� VoIP is here to stay.

Stats from Infonetics and TIA both show significant growth.

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President and CEO Mike Zafirovski continued� to revamp the executive suite at Nortel as he announced the appointment of Joseph Flanagan as vice president, Order Management.

Flanagan will report to Joel Hackney, senior vice president, Global Supply Chain and Quality and will be responsible for leading and standardizing the Company's business-to-business processes, and driving increased efficiencies across operations systems. Flanagan, who has global responsibilities, will work closely with Nortel's sales operations teams to ensure tight alignment with the strategic direction of sales and marketing.

Flanagan comes to Nortel from GE, where for the past 13 years he has held positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in the post of General Manager of Operations for GE Consumer & Industrial in EMEA.