TDM and VOIP

[March 15, 2006]

SAN JOSE, Calif., VON Conference and Expo, March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Polycom, Inc. , the world's leading provider of unified collaborative communications solutions, today announced that it has completed interoperability testing with the Nortel Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5100 (release 3.5) and 5200 (release 3.0) and received certificates of compatibility for its standards-based SoundPoint(R) IP desktop phones and the SoundStation(R) IP 4000 conference phone. The successful completion of the compatibility test audit demonstrates interoperability between Polycom VoIP phones and Nortel MCS platforms.


Polycom will demonstrate its full line of IP desktop and conference phones at the VON Conference and Expo (Polycom Booth #317), taking place March 15-17, 2006 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, Calif.

"We are pleased to expand our longstanding relationship with Nortel to add certified interoperability between our high-quality, standards-based VoIP desktop and conference phones and the Nortel Multimedia Communications Server," said Sunil Bhalla, senior vice president and general manager of voice communications at Polycom. "This certification demonstrates support for important telephony features of MCS on the Polycom phones and simple deployment and effective management within a Nortel MCS environment. This interoperability gives customers choice of additional phones that feature Polycom's renowned voice quality and programmable hard and soft keys that provide an intuitive user experience and an easy transition to VoIP."
"Combining the conference capabilities and wide reach of Polycom in enterprise environments with our advanced MCS platform provides choices for customers that want collaborative capabilities that allow their employees to share information in a meaningful fashion. We are pleased to simplify doing business with Nortel by offering increased confidence to our customers who choose jointly tested Nortel Compatible Products to deploy alongside their Nortel MCS solution," said Alex Pierson, vice president and general manager, Enterprise and SMB Communication Systems, Nortel. "Nortel is committed to offering open, standards-based interfaces, including a strong focus on SIP, enabling customer choice and flexibility when implementing VoIP."

The scope of compatibility testing included important features such as conference, transfer, call redirect/forward, caller ID, message waiting indication, codec negotiation, DTMF, firewall traversal, and hold/retrieve.

About Polycom VoIP Phones
Polycom's line of SoundPoint and SoundStation SIP phones offer standards- based flexibility with renowned Polycom voice quality and clarity. The phones are upgradeable via the network and offer rich feature support through a combination of intuitive hard and soft keys with a large graphical display, making it easy for users to transition to a VoIP environment. Several Polycom SIP desktop phones are available, including the SoundPoint IP 301, the SoundPoint IP 501 and the SoundPoint IP 601, which received a coveted Editor's Choice Award from Network Computing Magazine in a head-to-head test against other SIP desktop phones. Also available, the SoundPoint IP Attendant Console Solution consists of the SoundPoint IP 601 and up to three SoundPoint IP Expansion Modules for assistants who manage and monitor multiple simultaneous calls. The Polycom SoundStation IP 4000 is a full-featured SIP conference phone delivering Polycom's renowned Acoustic Clarity Technology for clear, natural, two-way communication.