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Looking to expand it wherewithal in the service provider market, Cisco Systems has arrived at NXTcomm and unpacked several new service provider deals.

First, BT and Sprint both achieved Cisco TelePresence Connection certification, which confirms that they have the network capacity to support what the vendor has described as its virtual “in-person” meeting solution that uses IP-based high-definition video and spatial audio for collaborative applications. Cisco set up the certification process to ensure that TelePresence connections could be reliably maintained.

BT Unified Communication Video solution, launched in March, uses TelePresence.

In a recent interview with Telephony, Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers, described TelePresence as the expression of how video can be a killer app for businesses. He said, “the movement to a new level of productivity, first driven by transactions and now driven by collaboration/Web 2.0 capability” is a clear, current inflection point in the service provider market, adding “This market is going to be the next wave of productivity and the next wave of entertainment.”

Cisco also is announcing at the show that Waynesboro, Va., service provider NTELOS is deploying the Cisco Carrier Routing System (CRS-1). The carrier currently offers Ethernet, virtual private network and voice-over-IP services and also is planning to launch IPTV. The NTELOS network includes Cisco 12000, 10000 and 7600 Series Routers, 3750 Metro Ethernet switches and Cisco 2400 Series Integrated Access Devices.