Microsoft is looking to extend the reach of its Office Communicator 2005 instant-messaging (IM) client via a new version that will be completely Web-based.

Microsoft is set to kick off on July 15 a first private beta release of what it's currently calling the "Office Communicator Web Access" client, company officials said on Tuesday. The company expects to ship the final version before the end of calendar 2005, officials said.

Communicator Web Access is similar to Microsoft's Outlook Web Access product, said Anoop Gupta, the corporate vice president in charge of Microsoft's Real-Time Collaboration Business Unit.

"People need reach and access from a lot of places," Gupta told Microsoft Watch, in explaining why Microsoft decided to do a Web-based version of Communicator

Office Communicator 2005, code-named "Istanbul," is Microsoft's integrated client for IM, voice, video, telephony and Web conferencing. Microsoft has positioned Communicator as its preferred front-end for its Live Communicators Server corporate instant-messaging server. Communicator supports VOIP standards such as SIP as well as IP PBXes.

While Microsoft officials declined to talk specifics about features for the Web-based Communicator product, the product will likely be a subset of the existing Communicator client. The focus will be on providing IM and "rich presence" capabilities, Microsoft officials said.

Microsoft officials made another "reach-related" announcement last month, noting they are readying a feature-pack update for Windows Mobile 5.0, which, when coupled with Exchange Server Service Pack 2, will provide Microsoft customers with push e-mail, akin to what Research In Motion is delivering today.

Gupta said that Microsoft's Real Time unit had a "wonderful" fiscal 2005 (which ends on June 30). He said Microsoft has enjoyed "tremendous traction in terms of sales and people using (Microsoft's real-time communications) products." He added that Microsoft has "exceeded budgets for Live Communications Server, and exceeded its adoption and usage projections" for its corporate IM products, as well.