Alcatel IP Soft Phone Wins Network World Award

March 6, 2002 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Alcatel (alcatel.com), a developer and builder of communications networks, announced on Wednesday that its product, the Alcatel 4980 soft phone earned a World Class Award in Network World magazine�s soft phone benchmark test (nwfusion.com).

The products, including equipment from Cisco, Avaya, Siemens, Mitel and Swyx, were tested entirely from an end user�s perspective, says Alcatel. The Alcatel 4890 was selected based on criteria such as performance, features, installation, ease of use and configuration.

�In the features realm, this product supported 37 of the 41 features we deemed necessary for use in a corporate setting. Alcatel's product also topped the ticket in terms of installation, ease of use and configuration,� says the report.

The Alcatel 4980, says the company, provides a software telephony interface integrated into the user�s desktop or laptop PC, and linked to a telephone. It is designed for use either as a soft phone, providing the entire voice communications interface using voice-over-IP capabilities, or in association with any other phone, extending office phone capabilities into environments with fewer features.

The 4980 soft phone, says Alcatel, provides a range of telephony features and dialing capabilities, including corporate phonebook directories, phone set management and voicemail, enabled by the PC. It�s open architecture allows it to integrate with popular workgroup applications and creates a tool for virtual call center agents, telecommuters and remote office workers.

"According to a new study by research firm Cahners In-Stat/MDR, there are 78 million `remote and mobile' workers in the U.S.," says Tom Wilburn, senior vice president, Alcatel North America enterprise business. "Alcatel sees a need for companies to provide effective communication support for the growing mobile workforce. Besides retrieving e-mails and transferring documents, road warriors can employ the Alcatel 4980 as a `virtual phone' on their notebook PCs to satisfy all their telephony requirements."