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Microsoft will begin testing a new [VoIP server][1] as part of the company's new Office Communications Server. The beta testing phase will begin in the second quarter of 2007 with 2,500 participants.
The new service is aimed at business users and will allow users to click on a name in Office Word, Outlook or Communicator and determine that person's availability and make a phone call.
For example, when a colleague sends you an e-mail, clicking their name in Office Outlook will check their phone availability status and place a person-to-person call or arrange a conference call with others.
Office Communications Server is an extension of the previously named Live Communications Server 2005, which allowed for IM, chat and other protocols, but had no support for VoIP.
The new Office Communications Server will work with many existing corporate communications structures, such as those available from Cisco, Siemens and others.
Microsoft's VoIP will use the [Session Initiation Protocol][2], the standard signaling protocol for Internet conferencing and telephony, unlike Skype for instance, which uses its own proprietary network.
The new Office Communications Server also supports audio, video and web conferencing as well as the ability to handle call waiting, forwarding and transfers.
According the Reuters report, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has predicted that within 10 years all business communications will be Web-based, meaning hundreds of millions of people will change how they communicate.
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_Protocol
[1]: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2006-12-12T055233Z_01_N11256623_RTRUKOC_0_US-MICROSOFT-VOIP.xml&src=rss
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