Fixed vendor strategies - 1/9/05

Nortel has signed a new deal with Microsoft for the integration of Microsoft’s Office Communicator 2005 and Office Live Communication servers with Nortel's Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based telecom and networking systems for IP telephony management, call control and unified messaging.

Microsoft has acquired Teleo, a provider of VoIP software and services. It has also signed a deal with Scientific Atlanta on IP set-tops (they jointly have to provide SBC with set-top boxes for its new Internet-based television service).

Multinet Pakistan, a subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia, will invest some $100m in a 4,500-kilometer long fiber-optic network across the country.