Microsoft (News - Alert) and Ubiquity Software will develop and market converged communications solutions to telecommunications service providers worldwide, the two companies announced on Monday.

 

Under the terms of a new alliance, Microsoft and Ubiquity said they will help operators address critical issues such as the integration of service delivery platform (SDP) deployments with next-generation network implementations based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert) (IMS) standard. The combined solutions will help operators extend the capabilities of IMS to create applications that integrate multiple Web services with real-time communications features.

 

As such, the deal is likely to be considerably more valuable to Microsoft, which gains from Ubiquity’s Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) expertise. On the other side of the table, Microsoft’s newest U.K. partner merely gains another distribution channel through the Microsoft Connected Services Framework, which unlike the software giant’s penetration on the client side is facing considerably more challenges breaking into the vertical market for operators and carriers.

 

“Working with Ubiquity, we can provide operators with an integrated platform that leverages their investment in IMS infrastructure and introduces the innovation found in the Web world, enabling them to deliver rich, converged communications services to their users,” said Maria Martinez, corporate vice president of the Communications Sector at Microsoft.

 

Since its introduction, Ubiquity’s SIP application server (A/S) is that has won the support from major hardware vendors and telecom equipment manufacturers. For example, Intel (News - Alert) has validated the open, standards-based service creation platform at its MSP Laboratories as a component of the Modular Communications Platform framework. SIP A/S has already been selected by many carriers to enable the rapid development and deployment of a broad range of advanced communications services.

 

As part of the agreement, Ubiquity becomes the latest company to join Microsoft’s Communications Sector Partner Alliance Program. The two companies are demonstrating a jointly developed service at the GlobalComm (News - Alert) show in Chicago called “I’m lost,” which integrates IMS services including those for telephony and location with Web services such as Microsoft MapPoint, Virtual Earth and e-mail to help “lost” mobile subscribers receive directions to their destinations either through e-mail or interactive voice response (IVR).

 

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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.