Also on Monday, Symbol Technologies Inc. and IBM jointly announced that Symbol's WS5120 wireless switch is now being offered as an IBM BladeCenter appliance to aid in centralized management. Both the IBM/Symbol and Aruba technologies are designed to offer simplicity for deployment and greater manageability, the companies said. Symbol's WS5120 switch can be used in larger offices; Its WS2000 switch is more comparable to the Aruba device, Symbol officials and analysts said.

Aruba competes in the wireless LAN market with several other large equipment vendors, including Cisco Systems Inc., Symbol and Trapeze Networks Inc.

In an unrelated netwokring announcement, Smoothstone IP Communications in Louisville, Ky. announced a managed IP communications service for medium-sized businesses. The service operates on Cisco gear and provides local dial tone in 5,800 U.S. calling areas, while offering a full range of services such IP voice, data and video communications as well as videoconferencing, said Jeff Wellemeyer, chairman and CTO.

Smoothstone services are estimated to cost $45 per user each month, and customers can expect to see a reduction in monthly communications costs of 20 percent to 30 percent, Wellemeyer said.