A Microsoft partner has become the first to offer Microsoft's new unified communications software as a hosted service.

Intermedia on Tuesday will begin offering Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) as a hosted service on a subscription basis for $7.95 per user, per month, said Rurik Bradbury, vice president of strategy for Intermedia. The service initially will be available to users of Intermedia's hosted Exchange service, which costs $12 per user, per month. Eventually, the OCS service will be available independently of that service, he said.

Intermedia is a SaaS (software as a service) provider in New York and one of Microsoft's hosting partners. Microsoft also offers Exchange as a hosted service, and eventually plans to offer OCS as a hosted service, but has not specified when. Other Microsoft hosting partners such as USA.net and Apptix also plan to offer OCS on a hosted basis but have not done so thus far.

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Microsoft, Partners, Microsoft Partner, OCS, Office Communication Server, Host, Web Host, Hosting Service, ISP