Ericsson and Polycom cooperate for mass market visual communication

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, on February 14th, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Polycom (NASDAQ: PLCM) announced collaboration around an integrated end-to-end solution for hosted telepresence services that will enable telecom operators to deliver affordable, high-definition (HD) visual communications services to businesses and consumers.

During the event, Ericsson and Polycom are previewing integration between the Ericsson IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) network and Polycom infrastructure and telepresence endpoints, in a first step in collaboration between the companies.

The collaboration between Polycom and Ericsson – driven by dispersed workforces, globalisation, travel restrictions, and green workplaces – responds to the rising adoption rates and increasing customer demand across enterprises of all size, and will extend visual communications as a truly global mass market service. The new solutions are based on the standardised IMS technology, the same underlying technology used by telecom operators today.

“Availability of visual communications as an affordable, reliable and high-quality service through telecom operators will help usher in global, mainstream adoption,” says Joe Burton, chief technology and strategy officer, Polycom. “Furthering our UC Everywhere and cloud strategies, Polycom is excited to collaborate with Ericsson around standards-based solutions with the open interoperability needed to easily connect people across devices and networks.”

“Ericsson believes in visual communications,” says Magnus Furustam, Vice President and Head of Core and IMS at Ericsson. “The preview at MWC is a first significant proof point of Ericsson and Polycom cooperation to create an interoperable end-to-end solution for mass market deployment, enabling telecom operators to offer network-based video services to business users and consumers.”

Ericsson is the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company’s portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.

Ericsson is advancing its vision of being the “prime driver in an all-communicating world” through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 90,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 203.3 billion (USD 28.2 billion) in 2010. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

www.ericsson.com
www.twitter.com/ericssonpress
www.facebook.com/technologyforgood
www.youtube.com/ericssonpress

ABOUT POLYCOM

Polycom, Inc. is a global leader in unified communications solutions with industry-leading telepresence, video, voice and infrastructure solutions built on open standards. Polycom powers smarter conversations, transforming lives and businesses worldwide. Please visit www.polycom.asia for more information or connect with Polycom on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

2011 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM, the Polycom “Triangles” logo and the names and marks associated with Polycom’s products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Polycom reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time. Products and related specifications referenced herein are not guaranteed and will be delivered on a when and if available basis.

Ericsson Corporate Public & Media Relations
Phone: +46 10 719 69 92
E-mail: media.relations@ericsson.com

Polycom Corporate Public Relations

Michael Rose

Phone: +65 9838 1500

E-mail: michael.rose@polycom.com