BT Group announced today that it"s now promoting Microsoft"s Live Meeting conference service. Over the past few months Microsoft"s Live Meeting service has been slowly declining (being replaced by its competitors). Looks like Microsoft"s service is getting a well needed boost.
In an apparent setback for WebEx Communications, U.K. telecommunications company BT Group is now promoting Microsoft"s Live Meeting as its primary Web conferencing service. WebEx, considered the worldwide market leader in Web conferencing, announced its relationship with BT for the European market in February. It said at the time that the deal was important to boost its business outside the U.S., where it made just 10 percent of its revenue in last year"s fourth quarter.
However, while WebEx is still offered by BT, the telecommunications company is now promoting Microsoft"s Live Meeting, formerly PlaceWare, as "the best in class Web conferencing" on BT"s Web conferencing Web site. The site also contains a side-by-side comparison of Live Meeting and WebEx that shows Microsoft"s product outclassing WebEx. WebEx was taken aback by how BT described its service. "There are some factual errors there. Obviously we have to talk to our BT partners," said Praful Shah, vice president of strategic communications at WebEx. "We would not be the market leader if we could not deliver the quality of service."