MCI Adds Microsoft Conferencing

MCI is drawing on its ongoing relationship with Microsoft for the creation, deployment and support of IP-based solutions. MCI will handle the networking; Microsoft will develop software and applications for MCI-branded products such as presence-based voice over IP and real-time collaborative communications.

The combined development work between the two companies was key to the creation of MCI's next generation Net Conferencing software, which is powered by Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

"By bridging MCI's advanced IP networking strengths with Microsoft's industry-leading software, we are making the transition to convergence logical, simple and useful for end users," said Nancy Gofus, senior vice president of MCI Product Management.

Microsoft launched Office Live Meeting 2005 on Tuesday, and has developed a new unified communications client dubbed Office Communicator that pulls together IM, VoIP, video, telephony and Web conferencing capabilities.

Web meeting company WebEx also pledged support for Microsoft's communications push Tuesday, announcing plans to integrate its services directly into Office Communicator. "This addition will enable our customers to expand their use of our suite of applications for sales, support, training and events," said WebEx vice president Stanford Au.

Nate Mook contributed to this report.