Nortel's unified network range gets cool reception

Products upgraded to lead market assault.

Nortel Networks has finally added some beef to its unified networks strategy by announcing a new IP-telephony product range to ship in September.

The products, which include VoIP (voice over IP) gateways for the corporate Lan/Wan connection, and an IP option to its Meridian PBX, have been warily greeted by analysts, such as Gartner Group.

Meanwhile, Nortel and Cisco have been promising to roll out IP products as proof that they are positioned to lead the convergence charge when it arrives.

Bhawani Shankar, a senior analyst at Gartner Group, said: "Nortel is still very unclear about how the roles of Meridian and the connection manager will evolve. There will be a high degree of scepticism among medium and large enterprises because vendor fashions change so often. Users can't be expected to buy a whole new product suite every year."

Nortel also upgraded its Optivity network management system to support data and voice products including the Meridian PBX and other vendor products, and will ship an NT-based soft PBX.

Paul Trowbridge, Nortel's product and solutions marketing manager, conceded that the NT-based PBX wouldn't have the same amount of functionality as traditional PBXs, but said it would be able to hold its own in the market.

"It will offer connection and management services including call forwarding as well as error handling, and it will be as robust as the traditional PBX."