Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Partner to Offer New Revenue Opportunities for Telcos

Australian and New Zealand carriers and ISPs will now be able to offer customers integrated voice and data services following an agreement between Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Australia Limited.

Under the agreement, the two companies will work collaboratively to deliver a pre-configured VoIP IP Centrex telephony solution to the Australian and New Zealand markets using BroadSoft's BroadWorks application. This will enable carriers and ISPs to use their existing data networks to deliver voice calls, opening new opportunities for revenue generation.

Previously a much-hyped technology, IP telephony is reaching a point of maturity in the Australian marketplace. As the enterprise increasingly seeks the means of leveraging existing infrastructure for greater cost control, the take-up of IP telephony is gaining momentum.

For today's enterprise, the technology offers a broad range of benefits including a reduction in total cost of ownership, reduced administration overheads, interoperability, modularity and innovative new services such as unified messaging, call centre administration and conference calling.

The BroadWorks application takes advantage of Sun's telecommunications-grade, open-standard platform to offer a fully redundant integrated systems architecture. Fujitsu will supply the core application together with systems integration services, Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) deployment and on-going support.

According to Michael May, National Sales Director for Sun Microsystems Australia, the BroadWorks application leverages the incumbent skills and strong credentials each company has in the telecommunications sector.

"Sun has a strong heritage in delivering open standards-based, telecommunications-grade server equipment. When coupled with Fujitsu's expertise in voice/PBX solutions and BroadSoft's hosted communications platform, the result is an industry-leading solution for carriers and ISPs," said May.

A robust solution for carriers, greater flexibility for enterprise

Instead of relying on traditional PBX systems, the BroadWorks application runs on a network server using a software-based PBX. This allows carriers or ISPs to host the application and deliver it to the enterprise in a Web-based format (ie an application service provider model).

Rather than buy PBX hardware, customers can manage all their telephony services and functionality via the Web using a standard PC, thereby reducing overheads and gaining greater management control.

Developed using open standards, the application integrates seamlessly with traditional telecommunications platforms.

"As the telecommunications sector moves further in the direction of open systems, we are increasingly seeing innovative, non-proprietary solutions available on the market. This three-way partnership presents increasing opportunities for Sun to work with industry leaders to deliver the computing infrastructure that underpins their applications," said Michael May.

For Fujitsu, the agreement represents a collective move by the companies to take a leadership position in the maturing IP telephony market.

"We are pleased to have quickly established a framework that will add value to companies wanting to exploit the benefits of hosted telephony solutions in a VoIP environment," said Mr Brian Murphy, General Manager Telecommunications, Fujitsu Australia Limited.

"The Australian market is just beginning to see real movement in the take-up of VoIP services and equipment. IP telephony solutions will accelerate this growth over the next few years as enterprises move progressively toward consolidating data connectivity and telephone services," he continued.