Juniper Networks is jointly developing fixed/mobile convergence (FMC) products with NEC that it will bring to North America next year.

Juniper plans to contribute its IP transport expertise, and NEC will contribute control plane elements to develop FMC solutions based on IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) architectures, the two vendors announced this week.

NEC has been reselling Juniper products in Japan and other parts of Asia since 2002. The new venture is an expansion of one the two companies announced in March, wherein NEC agreed to distribute Juniper’s voice-over-IP products in Japan. The FMC venture, however, is worldwide in scope, and the solutions the two companies produce will be sold in North America starting some time in the first half of next year, Juniper said.

Japan was chosen as a starting point because mobile technology adoption there is more advanced than in the U.S., Juniper said.

When Juniper does begin targeting the domestic FMC market, it will do so in partnership with other equipment vendors, but not necessarily just NEC. Juniper also has partnerships with Lucent Technologies, Siemens and Ericsson.

“Any of the partners can bring the [FMC] solutions to market,” said Chandra Tekwani, Juniper’s vice president of mobility and convergence.

Juniper has been working with other vendors on IMS-related products, he added, though the company can’t disclose those efforts yet.

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