At the recently held Enterprise Connect (News - Alert) 2012, Avaya announced plans to enter into strategic partnership with Level 3 Communications, a provider of core transport, IP, voice, video and content delivery for a large number of medium to large Internet carriers, in order to support the latest AvayaLive Connect solution in the U.S.

There’s excellent market opportunity for hosted solutions as customers look for solutions that help them control communication expenditures and focus on their core business.

AvayaLive Connect, offered as part of the newly launched AvayaLive suite of unique public cloud-based business collaboration solutions, provides voice, messaging, video, mobility, presence and conferencing. The solution can be deployed at small businesses that are traditional or virtual organizations with multiple offices and remote and mobile employees.

The solution is currently in trials and is planned for general availability in the U.S. market by mid-2012. 

"The AvayaLive Connect solution is a great way for small businesses to enjoy the benefits of unified communications without the burden of cumbersome implementations and ongoing management overhead,” said Sara Baack, senior vice president, Voice Services, Level 3 Communications, in a statement.

The partnership combines Avaya’s (News - Alert) innovation and leadership in unified communications along with Level 3's position as an innovative provider of IP-based communications services built on Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP). It will help businesses drive faster collaboration, smarter decisions and better results.

The announcement highlights Avaya's commitment to bringing The Power of We, the latest branding initiative that showcases Avaya’s focus on next-generation business collaboration and communications, to every Avaya customer, company officials said.

Meanwhile, a recent TMCnet report said Avaya is planning to acquire video conferencing system maker Radvision (News - Alert). The deal will be worth an estimated $200 to $250 million, the report citing an Israel-based business publication, Globes, said. According to the report, Radvision has been looking for an acquisition partner since the 2009 purchase of Tandberg (News - Alert), formerly the company’s largest customer, by Cisco Systems for $3.3 billion.