Microsoft News Tracker

“2.0″ seems to be the new black:

This week at ITU Telecom World 2006, Microsoft Corp. is showcasing for the first time its full portfolio of solutions and services developed specifically for the global telecommunications industry. In its exhibit presence and participation in ITU Telecom World, Microsoft is highlighting the broad range of voice, video, data and mobile solutions it delivers to leading service providers today, as well as unveiling new products and initiatives designed to help operators create revenue-generating offerings for businesses and consumers, now and in the future.

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A new model known as Telco 2.0 is emerging as the telecommunications industry embraces the principles of Web 2.0 and technologies and services from the Internet world. In the Telco 2.0 era, operators will be able to offer hundreds of services that bring together numerous applications and types of content from a variety of sources to form composite services; in this world, the combinations of potential new services are nearly limitless. Microsoft provides the operating platform, technologies, applications and partner ecosystem that will help make Telco 2.0 a reality.

Whatever. More concretely, here’s what Microsoft announced:

Service Delivery

• Norwegian telecom provider Telenor is a reference customer for the Microsoft Connected Services Framework.
• Microsoft introduced the Connected Services Sandbox, a proof-of-concept and integration environment that will allow ISVs and developers to test their services along with offerings from Microsoft, service providers and system integrators.

Revenue-Generating Services

• Swisscom is a reference customer for the Microsoft Solution for Enhanced Voice over IP (VoIP) Services.
• Bharti Airtel is a reference customer for the Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration.

End-User Devices and Screens

• Samsung and Microsoft announced a new Samsung Ultra Messaging i600 device in Asia and Europe, the first 3G smartphone with support for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and support for applications such as podcasting and RSS feeds. More details here and here.
• Microsoft announced that the Windows Mobile operating system will support China Mobile’s new Push Mail service. More details here.