"Together, MCI and Microsoft are making audio and web conferencing applications a reality for our customers," said Nancy Gofus, senior vice president of MCI Product Management. "By bridging MCI's advanced IP networking strengths with Microsoft's industry-leading web conferencing and web collaboration software, we are making the transition to convergence logical, simple and useful for end users. Our customers will see immediate benefit from the next generation of MCI Net Web Conferencing, powered by Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and ongoing benefits as the two companies continue their development work together."

In May 2004, Microsoft and MCI established a relationship as preferred communication and collaboration partners. As part of this evolving relationship, the two companies are committed to working on a variety of projects including the co-development of new web conferencing services and the expansion of both organizations' web collaboration communication capabilities. The two companies are dedicating resources to the development of innovative technology solutions based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), including presence-based VoIP applications, shared web communications and secure instant messaging solutions that will enable business customers to collaborate and communicate in real time.

As a leading provider of SIP-based services, MCI worked with Microsoft to co-author the standard audio and web conferencing extensions to the SIP protocol. SIP is designed to set up multimedia sessions including voice traffic over the Internet. Because it is a web-based solution, SIP allows for easy integration of voice with other multimedia web services.

By incorporating Microsoft web conferencing applications with MCI's IP capabilities, customers will benefit from an integrated web conferencing communications solution that allows for voice, video and document sharing capabilities. With a simple click of the mouse, businesses can easily connect to coworkers, partners and customers via email, phone, web conferencing or instant messaging, utilizing a secure portal and IP transport.

"Industry-leading companies, such as MCI, have played a significant role in the development of rich communication solutions that address the diverse business needs of information workers," said Taylor Collyer, senior director of Product Management, Real-Time Collaboration Business Unit at Microsoft Corp. "We look forward to continuing to work with MCI to deliver real-time collaboration tools that help customers make better, more informed business decisions, faster."

As a major provider of Microsoft Office Live Meeting, an online web collaboration and Web conferencing service, MCI has worked closely with Microsoft to develop next-generation web conferencing capabilities. MCI Net Conferencing will offer the 2005 release of Microsoft Office Live Meeting, integrating audio and web conferencing capabilities, so that users can better manage their audio needs in a web-based environment. By combining the two companies' capabilities into a seamless user experience, MCI and Microsoft allow customers to take advantage of multimedia, interactive real-time communications in a rich collaborative setting.

MCI is also working with Microsoft as part of their voice and web collaboration alliance to create real-time business solutions targeted to increase the efficiency of web communication among workgroups. The combination of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005, an enterprise-grade instant messaging and presence awareness platform, and MCI's IP network and applications will create an integrated web collaboration and web conferencing solution allowing businesses to view presence information directly from productivity applications, such as Microsoft Outlook 2003, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word, as well as team sites and portals, such as Windows SharePoint Services. Because all contact information is available in Microsoft Office Outlook and connected to MCI's IP and VoIP platforms, employees can send an e-mail message or instant message, or even call a contact on the phone, with a single click of the mouse.

MCI was one of the earliest testers of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, starting with Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003, and continues to be an early adopter of the solution with its recent trial of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Service Pack 1. The company plans on rolling out Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 company-wide later this year. To learn more, go to http://www.mci.com.