Manitoba Telecom unifies messaging with Bellcore

Unified messaging platform announcements may be beginning to sound like all talk, but Bellcore's announcement last week of a platform should put its money where its mouth is. The vendor not only introduced a next generation messaging platform, it said Manitoba Telecom Services-the only full-service telecom provider in Manitoba, Canada-has signed on for trials.

"There are a lot of unified messaging services being used on PCs, but this is a platform that's actually out there," said Richard Tarabor, director of advanced services for Bellcore.

The new platform offers three value propositions. It will bring in new revenue for service providers and reduce churn, increase use of existing services and reduce costs because its open standard allows a choice of hardware and software, he said. For the user, Tarabor said, the system simplifies messaging by providing one message retrieval access point.

With the platform, all voice mail, e-mail, pages and faxes can be accessed from an e-mail box, a phone or by a pager. Users configure their systems for the most effective method.

The platform is unique, not only because it is one of the only systems available to service providers, but because of its open standards base, said Boryana Marova, a research analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "It should offer service providers a lot of freedom in what kind of services they provide," she said. "Plus, they have a strong advantage in time-to-market. They'll capture the initial customers and then keep them."

Bellcore is primarily targeting competitive local exchange carriers and regional Bell operating companies but is looking into Internet service providers, Tarabor said.

MTS considered several vendors, but the "strength that Bellcore offered was the capability for integrating the wireless, wireline and Internet worlds," said Dennis Yanchycki, project director of unified messaging for MTS.

Trials began in November and should continue through the first quarter of 1999, with commercial service launching later next year.