MCI President Capellas Discloses Microsoft Deal

That vision was detailed Tuesday at the NetWorld Interop conference in Las Vegas, where MCI President and CEO Michael Capellas predicted in a keynote address that security and IP convergence will mark the next big phase in telecommunications and networking.

"It's not a question of if [IP convergence] is going to happen, but a question of when and how fast," Capellas told a crowd of roughly 1,000 conference attendees. "We want to get to the point where, to the network, a packet is a packet, no matter what medium your data is in."

As proof that such convergence is on the way, Capellas unveiled a partnership with Microsoft whereby the two companies will jointly develop and co-market communication and collaboration solutions powered by Microsoft Office Live Meeting. The first deliverable of this partnership, MCI's Net Conferencing service, integrates MCI's audio with Live Meeting; the service was expected to be available to channel partners by the end of the quarter.

In a demonstration of the new technology during his keynote, Capellas explained how similar technologies that stream audio, video and data over the same IP network are the ultimate goals for MCI. Touting the scalability of XML, the executive predicted that the collaboration with Microsoft would be the first in a series of strategic partnerships that enable interoperability across applications.

Capellas also said MCI will provide IP access to its audio and videoconferencing services, enabling organizations to leverage their IP investments for more enterprisewide collaboration. These new enhancements, available to MCI channel partners immediately, will allow participants using either IP- or non-IP-based end points to join the same audio or videoconference without incurring additional fees.

"Boundaries are blurring between computing and communications at all levels," Capellas said. "It's an exciting time to be in the industry."

In addressing other key components of MCI's strategy for the future, Capellas noted that the company will redouble its efforts to improve security across the board. In particular, he promised a smorgasbord of new and innovative managed security services, including managed firewall services, managed intrusion detection and managed e-mail scanning.

He also vowed to improve MCI's approach to PKI authentication for remote users and to launch a new Secure Interworking Gateway to enable customers to switch seamlessly from public to private networks, and back again.