Nearly every day, we are asked if Communications News conducts product testing or writes product reviews. Our standard response has been that only Consumer Reports can be trusted to conduct unbiased testing and reviews, since it does not accept advertising.

For years, however, we have been looking for a truly independent product-testing source that would provide our readers with useful insight into products in related technologies. We wanted a source that did its own selection of products and subsequent testing without our input-other than to decide which month to publish the results.

Finally, fate stepped in when Robert Smithers and I met up at this year's VoiceCon in Orlando. Rob is the CEO of Miercom, a privately held network consultancy based in East Windsor, N.J., specializing in networking and communications-related product testing and analysis.

Miercom has published its test results in some other prominent tech magazines, but those opportunities dried up as the magazines retrenched (editorially speaking). At Communications News, we're not retrenching. In fact, we're adding new content, including six new columns started this year on business continuity, IP convergence, network security, network performance, power management and green technology.

Beginning later this year, Miercom's comparative product testing results and analysis will be added to this list, with three testing reports planned through December. Interestingly, Miercom sought out Communications News not only because of our reputation in the tech community, but, as importantly, also because Rob and his team wanted to publish their test results in print, not just online.

The three testing reports we plan to print this year will cover unified communications, unified threat management for small to midsize enterprises and Web conferencing.

In addition, we will soon be posting a Miercom report online, related to its "Certified Green" evaluation program. In this report, Miercom engineers provide detailed measurement criteria and evaluation of the tested products' green IT value. Products were evaluated based on power efficiency, heat dissipation, cooling requirements and other factors.

Those are the kinds of details that readers will find in the Miercom test reports in Communications News-and the kind of independent product testing reviews we have been seeking for our readers.

kanderberg@comnews.com