Unisys and Cisco team up to offer IP-in-a-box

NEWS Unisys has teamed up with Cisco to offer Internet Protocol (IP) services to telcos and would-be telcos of all sizes, giving them the ability to differentiate their IP services through high-quality customer care, billing, financials and network maintenance and support. Steve Whipps, director, Service Provider Alliances & Operations EMEA at Cisco, said: "There's no doubt the market is making the change to IP. We're seeing mature telcos moving in that direction, as well as aggressive new entrants. We're going to do business with all of them." Unisys is driving the 'telco-in-a-box' alliance, which it claims is unique. Gareth Lewis, the company's director of strategy and planning, Communications Market Sector, said it is now possible to set up some form of telecoms operation using just the companies' voice over IP (VoIP) package. "The very small players will most likely pick a niche, such as video conferencing services, and go with it," he said. Cisco caused a major stir last month when Swedish national telco Telia handed it a $60m contract to develop an overlay network system - a move which kicked sand in the face of Ericsson, Telia's principal equipment supplier. However, Unisys and Cisco made it clear they will target all-IP next-generation telcos such as Level 3 Communications and Qwest, in addition to predominantly circuit switched national operators and small start-ups. The companies will spend $2m this summer on a centre in north-west London to display off their off-the-shelf solution.