NEC partners to boost fixed-mobile comms

Business smartphone users could benefit from a new partnership between VoIP firm CounterPath Corporation and NEC Unified Solutions that aims to provide access to a range of fixed-mobile convergence communication services via their mobile device.

The two companies have got together to launch NEC Smart Mobile Client 2.2 to access enterprise telephony, voicemail, corporate directory services, presence, instant messaging and conference call capabilities.

Donovan Jones, chief executive of CounterPath, said the new product would help workers who require easy access to their company's communication networks improve their productivity on the go.

"With Smart Mobile Client, customers on NEC call servers can now seamlessly shift phone calls off the cellular network onto their enterprise Wi-Fi network, saving an estimated 30 per cent on their mobile cellular spending," he said.

"They can also select PBX routing schemes for considerable savings on (international) roaming costs.”

The software supports BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian platforms, as well as Apple iPhone and Android through the web client.

CounterPath VP of product management Todd Carothers was bullish about the potential for success, quoting recent figures from In-Stat that predicted mobile VoIP applications will generate annual revenues of $35.2 billion by 2013.

He labeled the announcement "very significant" in that the firm is extending the NEC iS3000 PBX feature set into the mobile domain just as Research In Motion extended Microsoft Exchange e-mail and contacts functionality via the BlackBerry many years ago.

The product is being rolled out across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and can run on iS3000 and SIP@Net communication servers, while the forthcoming version 3.0, expected in early 2011, will be released for NEC’s Univerge SV8300 and SV8500 platforms.