November 15, 2005 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Internet service and Web hosting provider MCI (mci.com) and Cisco Systems (cisco.com) subsidiary Linksys (linksys.com) said on Monday that they would partner to offer Linksys One, a hosted communications solution for small businesses.
The Linksys One platform, to be rolled out next month, will deliver business-class telephones, Internet broadband access, data networking, hosted business applications and local and long distance voice over IP services on a single connection. The companies say Linksys One will eliminate the overhead and complexity of operating separate networks, enabling businesses to replace existing voice, fax and data lines with an MCI solution.
“MCI and Linksys are working together to create innovative IP solutions that specifically address the evolving demands of small businesses,” says Phil Meeks, senior vice president of strategic ventures and alliances at MCI. “Linksys One builds on the MCI Cisco strategic relationship to deliver the plug-and-play solution small businesses have been waiting for to take full advantage of IP communications.”
The Linksys One solution will combine MCI’s IP infrastructure with Linksys One premises equipment, which includes services router, voice gateway and SIP-based IP phones. MCI will manage and maintain the Cisco service node, which acts as an aggregation point for Linksys One solution customers, within its global IP network. The solution is also protected against disaster scenarios with all configurations maintained centrally in the MCI global IP network.
