Fixed vendor strategies - 28 May 2005

Microsoft has launched its Speech Server 2004 R2, in line with its continued commitment to driving speech technology.

Cisco unveiled a new flaw in its TCP timestamps option.

Alcatel/ Genesys announced a new Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) contact center solution. In a separate announcement, i announced that it has chosen the Microsoft platform to build new business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions.

Alcatel is partnering with Polycom on integrated collaboration solutions that span voice, video and Web conferencing.

Alcatel has named its partners for supplying metro nodes to BT's 21CN: Redback, Acme Packet and Convedia.

ECI Telecom and Cirpak (Thomson) announced a joint solution to enable incumbent operators to easily migrate their legacy networks to NG and VoIP according to the TISPAN architecture.

Siemens announced a complete family of broadband passive optical network (BPON) products, and interoperability with the Calix C7 multiservice access platform.

Hitachi will demonstrate Fiber-to-the-Premises Applications at Supercomm 2005.

Motorola is entering the BPL (broadband power line ) market with its Powerline LV solution.

Iskratel enters the IP PBX market with a distribution agreement with Zultys Technologies.

Italtel searches a partner to penetrate the US market. Apparently, Cisco (which owns 18% of Italtel and is its European partner) is not the right guy.