Web conferencing service launched by Microsoft

Bangalore: Microsoft India has launched MS Office Live Meeting 2005 and MS Office Live Communication Server, its web conferencing and enterprise instant messaging server.

Microsoft's real-time communication offerings, as these technologies are called, will enable corporates reduce communication costs and improve productivity and efficiency by enabling workers, and corporate partners to talk, collaborate and conduct web-conferences easily.

Live Meeting allows participants to be called directly to join a meeting and allows presenters to mute, unmute, and disconnect participants from MCI, BT and InterCall audio-conferencing systems.

Internet audio broadcast lets users stream audio over the internet using VoIP and so meeting participants need only the speakers on their PC to participate, the company said.

The company plans to launch the MS Starter, the stripped down version of Windows XP software, in India with local language capabilities by the middle of the year. Through OEMs at first and later through local assemblers, the company expects to sell its no-frills starter edition in Hindi first and later in other languages, according to the company.