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Nortel Bolsters WiMAX Position with Portfolio Enhancements, New Customers


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MIMO-Powered Solution Delivers “Internet Everywhere” User Experience

APRIL 06, 2006, LAS VEGAS - Demonstrating its increased investments in WiMAX, Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] announced WiMAX portfolio enhancements powered by MIMO technology. This innovative technology speeds deployment of next-generation, high-bandwidth wireless capabilities and is designed to make possible ’Internet Everywhere’ services such as VoIP, videoconferencing and interactive gaming.

Nortel is developing a complete portfolio of MIMO-powered WiMAX systems to serve numerous global markets and customer scenarios. Nortel’s WiMAX products are designed to allow wireless and wireline carriers, cable providers, media companies and other ISPs to deliver broadband connectivity to consumer and enterprise users by leveraging existing networks and ’last mile’ wireless links. The portfolio also provides greenfield service providers with newly acquired spectrum to deliver the high-bandwidth promise of WiMAX.

Leading service providers worldwide have recently selected Nortel’s WiMAX solution, including NEW Energie in Germany, Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and National Taiwan University in Taiwan, and Telefónica Móviles in México.

“Nortel is an industry leader in demonstrating the enhanced real-time communication benefits of truly mobile Internet experiences through OFDM and MIMO technologies,” said Mark Whitton, vice president and general manager, WiMAX, Nortel. “We continue to expand our WiMAX portfolio and customer base, with WiMAX networks running on every continent with customers ranging from municipalities to carriers to wireless ISPs. ”

Nortel and German regional power utility NEW Energie have completed a successful WiMAX broadband service trial. The trial, in the town of Erkelenz in North Rhine-Westphalia, lays the foundations for NEW Energie’s commercial launch of WiMAX for bandwidth-intensive wireless services such as live multimedia streams, VoIP applications and high-speed Internet access.

For the trial, Nortel worked with German communications consultant tkt teleconsult to deploy a WiMAX network that allowed NEW Energie to provide broadband wireless connections to a selection of small businesses and consumers at speeds of up to 10Mbps, equal to the current fastest fixed DSL services.

“We have very high hopes for WiMAX,” said Frank Korsten, NEW Energie broadband wireless access project manager. “The technology enables us to offer customers broadband connections without having to use physical wire or cable connections over the last mile. For regional carriers WiMAX offers the prospect of a valuable additional source of revenue.”

Telefónica Móviles is also testing Nortel’s WiMAX solutions. Cayetano Carbajo, CTO, Telefónica Móviles México, said: “Telefónica Móviles México chose Nortel’s WiMAX solution because of the company’s expertise in MIMO/OFDM technology and proven strength in delivering 3G cellular networks across the globe.”

Nortel also recently signed an agreement with Chunghwa Telecom to deploy a WiMAX solution in the operator’s experimental park to create an environment for testing WiMAX and wireless Mesh integration. In addition, Nortel is deploying a WiMAX trial system at the National Taiwan University campus so that the University can perform field validation and interoperability testing using a variety of devices and multi-media applications.

Nortel also recently completed a trial with the Alberta Special Areas Board (SAB) and NETAGO Wireless for what is expected to be Canada’s first commercial WiMAX network.

“Nortel’s WiMAX solution exceeded our expectations, achieving ranges of up to 18 km and throughputs of 9Mbps,” said Terry Ducherer, CEO of Netago Wireless. “Nortel’s WiMAX platform has placed our company, and more importantly our geographical area, ahead of similar areas in North America.”

In addition to these and other customer trials, Nortel is responding to increased interest in its WiMAX solution and has expanded its product portfolio to deliver mobile MIMO-enabled WiMAX products in the 1.5, 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 GHz spectrum bands, establishing one of the most comprehensive global WiMAX and WiBro portfolios in the industry. The products are designed with a flexible architecture that allows for quick re-banding for emerging markets.

Nortel is also launching WiMAX demo centers and interoperability labs to include a wide range of device and application partners in their state-of-the-art facilities in Ottawa and Taiwan. In addition, Nortel is working to bridge the digital divide in emerging markets and rural communities through government initiatives designed to bring affordable broadband services to businesses and consumers.

In addition, Nortel’s fixed WiMAX solution supplied by Airspan, recently achieved the designation of WiMAX Forum CertifiedTM based on the defined Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) system profile operating in the 3.5GHz frequency spectrum.

Nortel’s WiMAX solution will be demonstrated at CTIA Wireless 2006 in Las Vegas (Las Vegas Convention Center, Hall C, Booth #1835) April 5-7. The demonstration is expected to show the advantages WiMAX offers in delivering bandwidth-intensive, real-time applications on-the-go in urban settings and how it brings high-speed, broadband connectivity to rural areas.

As announced in 2005, Nortel is working with WiMAX leaders Intel and Airspan Networks to bring these products to market. Nortel is a member of the WiMAX Forum and has contributed to the 802.16 standard by helping develop underlying technologies like OFDM and MIMO for more than seven years, and holds several key patents in these areas.

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. Our next- generation technologies, for both service providers and enterprises, span access and core networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications, and help eliminate today’s barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people with information. 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.

Certain statements in this press release may contain words such as “could”, “expects”, “may”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “plans”, “envisions”, “seeks” and other similar language and are considered forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on Nortel’s current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the operating environment, economies and markets in which Nortel operates. These statements are subject to important assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and the actual outcome may be materially different. Although Nortel believes expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable based upon the assumptions in this press release, they may prove to be inaccurate and consequently Nortel’s actual results could differ materially from its expectations set out in this press release. Further, actual results or events could differ materially from those contemplated in forward-looking statements as a result of the following (i) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel’s restatements and related matters including: Nortel’s recently announced restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements and related events and that the previously filed financial statements of Nortel and NNL and related audit reports should not be relied upon; the negative impact on Nortel and NNL of their announced restatement and delay in filing their financial statements and related periodic reports causing them to breach their public debt indentures and obligations under their credit facilities with the possibility that the holders of their public debt or NNL’s lenders would seek to accelerate the maturity of that debt; and causing a breach of NNL’s support facility with EDC with the possibility that EDC would refuse to issue additional support under the facility, terminate its commitments under the facility or require NNL to cash collateralize all existing support; legal judgments, fines, penalties or settlements, or any substantial regulatory fines or other penalties or sanctions, related to the ongoing regulatory and criminal investigations of Nortel in the U.S. and Canada; any significant pending civil litigation actions not encompassed by Nortel’s proposed class action settlement; any substantial cash payment and/or significant dilution of Nortel’s existing equity positions resulting from the finalization and approval of its proposed class action settlement, or if such proposed class action settlement is not finalized, any larger settlements or awards of damages in respect of such class actions; any unsuccessful remediation of Nortel’s material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting resulting in an inability to report Nortel’s results of operations and financial condition accurately and in a timely manner; the time required to implement Nortel’s remedial measures; Nortel’s inability to access, in its current form, its shelf registration filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Nortel’s below investment grade credit rating and any further adverse effect on its credit rating due to Nortel’s restatement of its financial statements; any adverse affect on Nortel’s business and market price of its publicly traded securities arising from continuing negative publicity related to Nortel’s restatements; Nortel’s potential inability to attract or retain the personnel necessary to achieve its business objectives; any breach by Nortel of the continued listing requirements of the NYSE or TSX causing the NYSE and/or the TSX to commence suspension or delisting procedures; any default in Nortel’s filing obligations extending beyond May 9, 2006, causing any Canadian securities regulatory authority to impose an order to cease all trading in Nortel’s securities within the applicable jurisdiction or to impose such an order sooner if Nortel fails to comply with the alternate information guidelines of such regulatory authorities; (ii) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel’s business including: yearly and quarterly fluctuations of Nortel’s operating results; reduced demand and pricing pressures for its products due to global economic conditions, significant competition, competitive pricing practice, cautious capital spending by customers, increased industry consolidation, rapidly changing technologies, evolving industry standards, frequent new product introductions and short product life cycles, and other trends and industry characteristics affecting the telecommunications industry; any material and adverse affects on Nortel’s performance if its expectations regarding market demand for particular products prove to be wrong or because of certain barriers in its efforts to expand internationally; any reduction in Nortel’s operating results and any related volatility in its market price of its publicly traded securities arising from any decline in its gross margin, or fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; any negative developments associated with Nortel’s supply contract and contract manufacturing agreements including as a result of using a sole supplier for key optical networking solutions components, and any defects or errors in Nortel’s current or planned products; any negative impact to Nortel of its failure to achieve its business transformation objectives; restrictions on how Nortel and its president and chief executive officer conduct its business arising from a settlement with Motorola Inc.; additional valuation allowances for all or a portion of its deferred tax assets; Nortel’s failure to protect its intellectual property rights, or any adverse judgments or settlements arising out of disputes regarding intellectual property; changes in regulation of the Internet and/or other aspects of the industry; Nortel’s failure to successfully operate or integrate its strategic acquisitions, or failure to consummate or succeed with its strategic alliances; any negative affect of Nortel’s failure to evolve adequately its financial and managerial control and reporting systems and processes, manage and grow its business, or create an effective risk management strategy; and (iii) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel’s liquidity, financing arrangements and capital including: the impact of Nortel’s recently announced restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements; any acceleration under their public debt indentures and credit facilities, which may result in Nortel and NNL being unable to meet their respective payment obligations; any inability of Nortel to manage cash flow fluctuations to fund working capital requirements or achieve its business objectives in a timely manner or obtain additional sources of funding; high levels of debt, limitations on Nortel capitalizing on business opportunities because of credit facility covenants, or on obtaining additional secured debt pursuant to the provisions of indentures governing certain of Nortel’s public debt issues and the provisions of its credit facilities; any increase of restricted cash requirements for Nortel if it is unable to secure alternative support for obligations arising from certain normal course business activities, or any inability of Nortel’s subsidiaries to provide it with sufficient funding; any negative affect to Nortel of the need to make larger defined benefit plans contributions in the future or exposure to customer credit risks or inability of customers to fulfill payment obligations under customer financing arrangements; any negative impact on Nortel’s ability to make future acquisitions, raise capital, issue debt and retain employees arising from stock price volatility and further declines in Nortel’s market price of its publicly traded securities, or any future share consolidation resulting in a lower total market capitalization or adverse affect on the liquidity of Nortel’s common shares. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel’s securities filings with the SEC. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

*Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks.

Use of the terms “partner” and “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership between Nortel and any other party.



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