MaCS consortium interconnects Next Generation Networks. Nokia is a part of the consortium among other communications companies.

The goal of the Multimedia Communication Service (MaCS) project is to develop and experiment the new generation of Broadband Telephony Service for the residential market.

The MaCS consortium demonstrates for the first time a pan-European multimedia call based on interconnected Next Generation Network Platforms. This call is a significant industry milestone in the maturity of the NGN and IMS technology for fixed networks.

The consortium works intensively on the so-called “Next Generation Networks” (NGN), using the standardized IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture as defined by 3GPP for mobile networks and being adapted by ETSI TISPAN to also cover fixed networks. This provides the launching pad for the MaCS project team to specify and develop the next generation fixed telephony service that will be multimedia (voice, image and/or text) and enriched with innovative services such as videotelephony, personal environment, presence-information, reachability-settings, and address-book functions, with a consequently high quality, simplicity and unmatched user experience. In the next step of the MaCS project, the development of the already interconnected NGN platforms will be continued with the emphasis on the end-to-end integration and interoperability testing of the developed service.

The cooperation between the involved companies takes place in the framework of CELTIC MaCS Project. CELTIC is a 5 years European EUREKA research program, which on a private basis initiates and runs research projects in the field of telecommunications.