Mitel announces unified communicator advanced for BlackBerry PlayBook

BlackBerry World 2011, ORLANDO, USA: Mitel, a leading provider of unified communications (UC) software solutions, announced that it has extended its suite of unified communications capabilities to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and will be demonstrating the capabilities at BlackBerry's 'Mobile Office of the Future' at BlackBerry World 2011.

Mitel is also planning continued integration with BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 (BlackBerry MVS 5). Mitel will showcase its UC features for BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook at BlackBerry World 2011 in booth #301.

Building on the Mitel Freedom architecture, Mitel has extended the Mitel Unified Communicator (UC) Advanced mobile portal to the BlackBerry PlayBook, enabling a consistent, rich, end-user communication and collaboration experience.

In addition to providing remote access to corporate communications capabilities such as managing presence, viewing corporate contacts, call history, and voice mail details, the application allows mobile workers to initiate phone calls directly on the BlackBerry PlayBook without interrupting their work flow. Using the employee's BlackBerry smartphone, the application uses Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS 5 to generate the call, leveraging the Wi-Fi or cellular network.

"Mitel's Freedom architecture makes it simple and seamless to deliver our business communications solutions to mobile users, regardless of location," said Stephen Beamish, vice-president of corporate marketing and strategic partnerships at Mitel. "Our membership in the BlackBerry Alliance Program has allowed us to extend that further to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to provide unified communications applications to enhance the end user experience. We look forward to demonstrating the value Mitel brings to the BlackBerry PlayBook for the first time publically at the BlackBerry and Mitel booths."

Mitel is extending the Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS solution integration to include the recently released BlackBerry MVS 5.1. Today Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS delivers advanced Mitel business communications applications directly to BlackBerry smartphones and enables voice-over-Wi-Fi calls.

The combined solution enables IT managers to consolidate and simplify data center management by combining Mitel's voice virtualization and BlackBerry applications into a single virtual environment, bridging the gap between fixed and wireless telephony applications.

Mitel Mobility for BlackBerry MVS offers unrestricted handoff between users' devices, moving calls seamlessly to and from their desk phone, BlackBerry smartphone, home phone, or soft phone. With the integration of BlackBerry MVS 5.1 users can benefit from the automatic handoff between Wi-Fi and cellular networks to help further reduce roaming and wireless charges. The solution also enables BlackBerry smartphone users to take full advantage of Mitel business communications features without the need of a desk phone.