IBM, Airespace Join Group To Speed Mobile VoIP Adoption

Airespace, an enterprise WLAN equipment vendor being acquired by Cisco, this week joined IBM and security vendor VeriSign as the first three members of an alliance to speed the availability of converged voice-over-IP (VoIP) services.

The three vendors joined BridgePort Networks to form a group called Mobile IGNITE ((Mobile Integrated Go-to-Market Network IP Telephony Experience). Group members will perform interoperability testing to speed the process of providing VoIP that seamlessly switches between different types of networks such as Wi-Fi and cellular.

The issue, a BridgePort executive said in a statement, is the time it takes to bring such products to market.

"Mobile and broadband service providers are finding that time-to-market is critical in offering mobile VoIP," Mike Mulica, president and CEO of BridgePort Networks, said in a statement. "The MobileIGNITE program brings together the partner ecosystem that can get service providers to commercial service launches months or years sooner, reducing costs and integration risks.

Each member of the alliance will test their products with other members' products to speed time-to-market, the company said. BridgePort develops products, such as a gateway, that enable inter-network roaming for VoIP.