Siemens, Intel enter IP telephony partnership

Siemens and chipmaker Intel will collaborate on developing new technology for Internet telephony, a Reuters report said.

The report said Intel and Siemens wanted to expand the scope of Internet telephony, popularized by Skype, to build communications systems for corporate customers such as providers of telecoms and financial services and digital healthcare.

"Siemens has a strong commitment to this joint development effort and to ongoing collaboration with Intel," Thomas Zimmermann, president of Siemens' Enterprise Systems division, said in a statement.

Siemens hoped to sell its Enterprise Systems division, which specialized in building telecom systems for large corporations, by the end of the month, the report said.

To start with, the two companies said they would co-fund research and work together in the fields of secure wireless networks and real-time communications based on VoIP, the report further said.