Lucent is teaming with BroadSoft, a developer of VoIP applications, to deliver integrated VoIP  systems to service providers. They will combine BroadSoft's BroadWorks application software with Lucent's Accelerate softswitch and gateways for service providers building new or "overlay" VoIP networks. Business and residential services supported by the Lucent/BroadSoft integration include hosted IP PBX, IP Centrex, voice over broadband and voice VPN. Lucent also announced that Choice One Communications, which provides communications services to businesses in the Northeast and Midwest, will trial the products in preparation for an enterprise VoIP service rollout in its region.

Web hosting firm Verio has enhanced its customer portal to give users the ability to interact more tightly with its hosted infrastructure. The NTT/Verio PowerPortal is designed to give users a single dashboard from which to manage and monitor the applications, servers and network infrastructure hosted by Verio. Updates to the portal include enhanced security that lets users create authentication levels for different users; systems alerts to keep customers apprised of network, bandwidth, application and server performance; and improved trouble-ticket access to let users better manage problem resolution.

MCI has asked a bankruptcy judge for a 60-day extension to the Feb. 28 deadline for the company to emerge from bankruptcy. An extension to the deadline, mutually agreed to by MCI and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, would give MCI time to complete financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That is the last major task left for MCI to emerge from bankruptcy. "We have made incredible progress on the reconstruction of our financial statements, but it is much more important for us to get them done correctly rather than quickly," Bob Blakely, MCI executive vice president and CFO, said in a statement.