Genband snaps up Nortel VOIP

Nortel Networks has completed the sale of its voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) business to Genband for $182 million, reports Toronto Sun.

This move will see a large portion of former Nortel staff move to the new buyer.

Genband first revealed its bid in December and Nortel abandoned its auction of its VOIP carrier assets in February. Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009.

BT will integrate with telecommunications company Ribbit, in its Onevoice virtual private network business solution, turning it into an integrated voice system for the corporate market, states IT Pro Portal.

Ribbit was bought for $105 million and its main asset was its VOIP services and products.

Onevoice will be rolled out towards the end of the year with a beta Ribbit-ed version of Onevoice made available to a few corporate customers over the next few weeks.

Verizon Wireless plans to be the first major US telecom provider to shift all its users from legacy voice to VOIP by 2012, on its long term evolution (LTE) network, says TMCnet.

The telco claims that as many as five LTE phones will be released by May 2011.

Verizon will also roll out a family plan for mobile services, allowing use of five to six broadband-capable devices on a single account.