Nortel Expands VoIP Leadership, Launches SIP-Based VoIP Services in Rural Markets

Business Wire, Sept 6, 2005

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Next Gen DMS-10 VoIP Solution Opens New Markets to Rural Voice Providers

Nortel (NYSE:NT) (TSX:NT) today announced the successful deployment of its next generation, SIP-enabled DMS-10 platform, bringing residential VoIP to the rural North American market.

This solution is designed to expand revenue opportunities for rural service providers by enabling them to offer services enabled by Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) such as VoIP through a simple, low-cost expansion of the DMS-10, the industry's most broadly deployed voice switch.

Nortel's rural VoIP solution gives DMS-10 subscribers the option to use traditional or VoIP primary phone service and allows users to add cost-effective secondary VoIP lines. Subscribers can also take advantage of VoIP mobility capabilities, which allow their phones to travel with them wherever they have broadband access, and the DMS-10 web portal which allows users to modify call features and call routing. More than 75 service providers are already scheduled to deploy Nortel's rural VoIP enabled solution this year with volume shipments planned for October 2005.

"Nortel is bringing the benefits of SIP to the DMS platform," said Joe McGarvey, senior analyst for carrier IP telephony infrastructure, Current Analysis. "Thanks to Nortel's solution, rural customers can now get VoIP lines in their home with a telephone number in their local community and with service from a local trusted carrier."

Nortel's DMS-10 platform allows independent service providers and rural market carriers to seamlessly advance their networks to a new, cost-effective packet infrastructure at their own pace without expensive upgrades to the network. With the new SIP-enabled enhancements, service providers now have the capability to offer new revenue generating services such as primary or secondary line service over any broadband facility, mobility options with IP phones and clients, and service bundles such as VoIP coupled with the subscriber's existing broadband or long distance service.

Market research conducted by Nortel indicates that a VoIP offering has the potential to stimulate additional broadband service subscriptions in rural areas. Rural carriers can provide these services out-of-territory as well to expand their subscriber base.

"We are happy to see the DMS-10 evolve to a packet-based solution," said Norman T. Welker, president of Colchester, Ill.-based McDonough Telephone, which has approximately 4,200 lines. With the addition of SIP-based services, we will be able to offer VoIP and phone service beyond our local territory to expand our subscriber base."

"By offering VoIP to our customers, we will be better able to address the increasing mobility needs of our broadband service customers," said George Strandell, general manager and CEO of Golden West in Wall, S.D., which serves approximately 47,000 subscribers. "VoIP will enable us to give our customers the ability to make calls from the road as if they were at home and to offer the advanced telephony services our customers are asking for."

"Nortel understands the challenges we face in evolving our infrastructure to a next generation, packet-based network and continues to demonstrate its commitment to rural market providers," said Roy Cranford, translations engineer for Randolph Telephone, which is based in Asheboro, N.C. and services 15,000 lines. "By delivering the SIP-enabled DMS-10, Nortel has given us the ability to evolve our network at our own pace to meet our subscribers' growing telephony needs. Our deployment went exceptionally well, including calls placed from a user 200 miles away while on vacation!"

Nortel is taking the new solution on the road as part of its Next Generation Networks Rural Market Tour 2005. For more information on locations and dates of the tour, please visit http://www.nortel.com/corporate/events/2005c/ruralmarketroadshow/ locations.html. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

Nortel ranked number one in the global markets for service provider soft switches and gateways for the entire year of 2004 and for the first quarter of 2005, according to Synergy Research Group. Nortel is providing VoIP and multimedia solutions to many of the world's leading service providers, including Bell Canada, Cox Communications, OneConnect, Rogers Communications, SaskTel, Sprint, Verizon, and VIVO in Brazil.

About Nortel

Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world's most critical information. Serving both service provider and enterprise customers, Nortel delivers innovative technology solutions encompassing end-to-end broadband, Voice over IP, multimedia services and applications, and wireless broadband designed to help people solve the world's greatest challenges. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.>