BOSTON--Lucent Technologies introduced a new feature server for residential telephony applications at the Voice on the Net trade show in Boston Tuesday, citing a shift in the demand for SIP-based IMS features from enterprise to residential users.

Two versions of the Feature Server 5000 will be generally available sometime later this year: a 10-card version and one with at least 18 cards. A few customers are already using them, including West Coast competitive local exchange carrier SureWest Communications.

Prior to the 5000, Lucent offered its 2500 feature server for wireless users and a solution from Broadsoft for enterprise users but introduced the new product to serve an audience of residential users that has been growing rapidly in the past eight months or so with the help of consumer voice-over-IP providers such as Skype and Vonage.

“The market has picked up tremendously in the residential space,” said Jim Flack, senior manager of hosted applications for Lucent Worldwide Services. “That’s why we dove in.”