CANNES, FRANCE--Nortel Networks and IBM are joining forces for converged multimedia services, announcing today at the 3GSM World Congress that IBM will build its multimedia delivery platform off of Nortel's IP Multimedia Subsystem platform.

Targeted at wireless, wireline and cable operators, the new Converged Multimedia Services platform is designed to deliver rich multimedia content to any end user regardless of which network they're on. IMS is intended to act as a bridge between networks, converging wireless and wireline over a common core. According to Nortel, IBM's selection of Nortel as a key provider for that technology is a testament to Nortel's strengths in applications, particularly those geared at the enterprise.

"We have a lot of experience with enterprises and a lot of experience in VoIP," said Alan Pritchard, vice president of GSM and UMTS global marketing for Nortel. "We have a real depth in SIP voice-based applications and we can bring that to the relationship."

IBM has been formulating its convergence strategy over the last year, putting together a collection of technology partners that would help it develop a comprehensive portfolio of converged wireless and wireline services to offer its lucrative business customer base. At the GSM show, IBM demonstrated SIP voice over gaming and multimedia using partner Ubiquity's SIP applications servers, which are designed to be deployed in an IMS environment. IBM has also cemented partnerships with the likes of Verisign, BridgePort, IMC and PCTel, to create VoIP over Wi-Fi products and support seamless GSM to Wi-Fi roaming. The only piece of the technology puzzle IBM hadn't filled was its IMS partner.

The deal with IBM is by no means exclusive, since IBM would have to support its own services over other vendors' core infrastructure, but Pritchard said Nortel would be the key player in IBM's IMS efforts. IBM will use the Nortel solution as the reference platform to build its new suite of services, and both companies will jointly market the applications to enterprises and carriers, he said. "When you go into these IT deals, it really helps to have these kind of partnerships," Pritchard said.