Nine manufacturers, including LG Nortel, Samsung, Asus and NEC, have built fifteen new IP telephony devices that will make voice over IP (VoIP) calls via Microsoft’s Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 when it launches this summer.

IP handsets that plug directly into an Ethernet switch port will run the MS Communicator telephony client. They will link into company private branch exchanges (PBXs) based on OCS, a unified communications platform, currently in beta, that combines the MS Exchange mail and messaging platform with the Live Communications Server (LCS) telephony product for the first time.

Other new handsets will connect to OCS via the PC through its USB port, with new bluetooth headsets linking wirelessly. Asus has built a laptop that integrates high quality speakers and a microphone optimised for clear VoIP quality, whilst Samsung has done the same thing with a monitor.

Microsoft unified communications product manager Mark Deakin stressed the importance of making sure there is a wide choice of standardised high quality telephony devices available at less cost than proprietary IP handsets being sold by PBX vendors such as Cisco, Avaya and Nortel.

“This was previously a closed industry where if you have a PBX from one manufacturer you have to have a handset from that manufacturer as well. This way the end customer gets choice and the fact that these manufacturers are competing should drive the cost of these devices down,” he said.

The devices will be available direct from the manufacturer and through some retail outlets. Companies will need to buy a per user OCS server and client access license before they can make VoIP calls.

The full list of manufacturers is LG Nortel, Plantronics, Polycom, Samsung, Tatung, Asus, Vitelix, NEC and GN Netcom Jabra.