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September 16, 2008
Aastra Announces Multiple Innovations at ITEXPOBy Greg Galitzine, Group Editorial Director Aastra Telecom (News - Alert) made several announcements this morning in conjunction with their participation at Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO in Los Angeles. Aastra will be exhibiting in the open source pavilion at ITEXPO (News - Alert) on Wednesday and Thursday.
First up, Aastra introduced the Aastra MBU 400 DECT (News - Alert) Mobility solution, which is designed to slot in between the company’s personal mobility solution and their enterprise class SIP DECT solution, which were previously announced.
The MBU 400 is a fit for small to medium sized business customers. The solution comprises an access point that has both SIP and analog interfaces, and enables up to three simultaneous SIP calls and one analog call.
Users can register up to eight Aastra 420d handsets at a single time. These handsets feature color displays, polyphonic ringtones, vibrate functionality and a series of mobility features designed for the small business users are looking for. In addition, the Aastra MBU 400 comes with a DECT 6.0 gateway offering an FXO port, and tightly integrates with the AastraLink Pro 160, allowing customers a single tool for the administration of a complete Aastra system of SIP terminals and DECT handsets. The Aastra MBU 400 will be available in early November.
The price of the initial handset/access point combo is $299 MSRP and additional handsets are $189 each.
Aastra also announced a Web portal called myAastra.com.
The portal was designed to serve as a place to answer the constant questions from carriers, resellers, and end users, and as a way to help all these constituencies ‘connect the dots.’ The community will feature applications as well as serve as a resource that Aastra hopes will allow developers to expand the application universe (by giving them access to design new widgets, PC to phone applications, etc…)
The initial set of myAastra services will enhance the way users access and utilize contact lists, provide quick access to a number of information services such as stock quotes, news, weather and more, and, make it easy to call or e-mail people with a single press of a button on their Aastra SIP phone.
The service is free for now, and some commercial elements may be added in the future.
Lastly Aastra announced that they will be releasing a software upgrade to their Asterisk (News - Alert)-based solution (AastraLink Pro) in the November time frame
The upgraded features in the coming version 1.2 will include:
· Shared line appearance
· Paging to all phones, or to groups of phones
· Enabling of meet-me conferencing
· Ability to manage the service from a single device, and
· Soft phone twinning with an IP desk phone
Learn more about Aastra at INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO — the biggest and most comprehensive IP communications event of the year. ITEXPO is taking place in Los Angeles, California, September 16-18, 2008, featuring three valuable days of exhibits, conferences, and networking opportunities you can’t afford to miss. Visit Aastra at booth #OS 07 08 in the exhibit hall.
Greg Galitzine is editorial director for TMC’s (News - Alert) IP Communications suite of products, including TMCnet.com. To read more of Greg’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here. Edited by Stefania Viscusi |