As part of the convergence project, UPMC officials hope to reduce the current setup to a single voice-mail system and one call center, Hanna said. He added that it isn't clear how many IP-based switches will have to be installed to support the new network. And although he predicted that the convergence work will result in lower networking costs, he couldn't say by how much.

Hanna said the core network will be based on technologies usually reserved for telecommunications companies, including carrier-class routers and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing technology operating over fiber-optic cabling. "It will be very high performance -- not what you'd typically see in an organization's network, especially in health care," he said.

Nancy Landman, the UPMC's vice president of business development and IT operations, said Alcatel beat out rival vendors such as Nortel Networks Corp. and Avaya Inc. partly because the health care system felt that Alcatel would act more as a long-term partner than as a traditional vendor.

For example, the deal calls for the UPMC and Alcatel to each invest $25 million in a joint venture that will develop health care applications and technologies. They said they initially will focus on products that enable health care providers, emergency response workers and other parties to share information during public-safety crises, such as a pandemic or terrorist attack.

Hanna said Alcatel also embraced the idea of supporting a hybrid network of digital, analog and IP-based phones, something Cisco couldn't do.