Updated: July 12, 2020 (May 17, 2010)

Voice License to Be Unbundled

Rob Horwitz analyzes and writes about Microsoft licensing programs and product licensing rules. He also trains organizations on best Microsoft... more

Advanced voice capabilities in the next version of Communications Server, code-named Communications Server 14 and expected before the end of 2010, will be licensed with a new Voice Client Access License (CAL). In recently shipped versions, Communications Server 2007 and 2007 R2, an Enterprise CAL licenses both voice and conferencing features; with Communications Server 14 it will license only the latter. The change will allow Communications Server 14 to be more price-competitive against other vendors’ voice-only or conferencing-only solutions, but will likely result in higher licensing costs for organizations that use the product for both purposes.

Voice, Video Separated from Conferencing

Communications Server supports four forms of real-time communications:

Instant messaging (IM) enables users to send text messages to other users
Presence indicates which users are online and available to receive messages or other forms of communications
Voice (using Voice over IP) and video

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