Microsoft to unveil new Web phone software

Microsoft Corp. will unveil a new version of its Internet telephone and instant-messaging program that can more easily route calls to workers' office and mobile phones.

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 can automatically forward calls to a worker's backup contacts or other members of a group, said Vice President Gurdeep Singh Pall. The related Communicator Mobile software will work with Nokia Oyj's Series 40 and Series 60 phones, as well as Motorola Inc.'s Razr handsets.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, is vying for a bigger share of the market for e-mail and Internet-phone programs, which will rise to almost $17.5 billion by 2011, more than triple the amount last year, according to Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC. Half of Fortune 500 companies have already bought licenses to use the previous version of the program, Pall said.

The new software, which Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft will demonstrate at the VoiceCon show this week in Amsterdam, will be available Feb. 3.

The program also offers persistent group chat, which lets users enter and leave chat rooms at will and view old messages. The previous version enabled call routing to Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerrys and mobile phones with Microsoft's Windows.