Nortel Empowers Smbs In Europe, Middle East And Africa With Cost-Effective IP Telephony And Advanced Conferencing Services

LONDON - Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] announced the availability in Europe, Middle East and Africa of a suite of product enhancements for small and medium businesses (SMBs) which deliver cost-effective IP telephony and advanced conferencing services. Today’s announcement includes a suite of new features for the Nortel multi-award-winning Business Communication Manager 50 (BCM50) platform for converged voice and data communications as well as innovative new SMB-centric phones that come pre-programmed with the most common features used by SMBs including autodial, conferencing, and messaging.



SMB customers can now purchase a simple software upgrade for the Nortel BCM50 that enables them to take advantage of new offerings such as SIP trunking, offering a single pipeline for multimedia elements, for delivering more cost-effective service provider access and advanced Meet-Me Conferencing services plus a wide range of functionality and operational enhancements.

Also new for EMEA customers is the Nortel SMB-centric IP 1200 phones series that offer the full range of BCM IP Telephony features. All 1200 series IP phones support hands-free operation with advanced audio-quality technology for crystal clear conversations, headset support and have an integrated Ethernet switch for single desktop wiring. In addition, for customers requiring additional buttons, two version of the key expansion module are available.

“Nortel is strongly committed to supporting the SMB community in Europe, Middle East and Africa,” said Peter Kelly, president Enterprise Networks, Nortel EMEA. “We aim to deliver solutions that are custom built for the SMB which do not require rip and replace of existing equipment but instead build on the capacity and capability inbuilt into powerful platforms such as the Nortel BCM50.”

Nortel SMB customer Real Estate firm E.D. Goutos SA** , has been in business in Greece for the last 45 years. “Today we have 25 employees based in our head office in Athens and 11 employees in our two branches at Peloponissos and we are in the process of opening a new branch in Glyfada, Athens to serve our expanding customer base more effectively,” said Triantafillos Papaioannou, IT and SW Development manager, E.D. Goutos SA. “Nortel is helping us support this growth by ensuring we have the best connectivity for each employee, either at their desk or on the move with their laptops, through features such as unified messaging and advanced conferencing capabilities. Nortel understands that we are a fast-growing company in a fast-moving business sector and continues to provide products and solutions that can grow with us as we need to expand.”

“Small and medium businesses were once constrained by the limited technologies and communications tools available to them, and this impacted their ability to grow and succeed. But things are changing as companies like Nortel arm SMBs with customized technologies such as Internet access, contact center integration and remote working,” said Ray Boggs, vice president SMB research, IDC. “SMBs can be a challenge to serve, since they want to access the latest technology, but they don’t want to throw away the equipment they already have. Nortel’s approach provides an upgrade path to advanced capabilities while leveraging previous SMB investments.”

During the past 20 years, Nortel has provided more than 15 million SMB desktops in over 80 countries globally with end-to-end solutions that allow them to scale and build networks that fit their needs today and into the future. Today’s launch works together with an already available suite of SMB data solutions supporting converged communication, security and mobility. Nortel’s evolving portfolio of SMB solutions demonstrates its ongoing commitment to helping SMBs benefit from a complete converged solution through a single vendor under the umbrella of a common, easy to use management platform.

Nortel’s new SMB products include:

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Business Communications Manager (BCM) 50, Release 3.0: provides new and existing customers SIP trunking enhancements, new Meet-Me Audio Conferencing and reporting features, improved applications, better platform integration, operability improvements and support of the new SMB-centric IP Phone 1200 Series. This is the third major release of Nortel’s multi-award winning BCM50 product that has sold over 75 000 units since May 2005. Currently available in Europe, Middle East and Africa, NA, CALA, and Asia.
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IP Phone 1200 Series: provides an innovative, feature rich portfolio of IP telephones that come pre-programmed with the most common telephony features used by SMBs such as autodial, conference, and messaging, and can be easily customized to access more than 400 sophisticated BCM features. Available in three models IP 1210, 1220 and 1230, the new series is also supporting 12-Key and 18-Key Key Expansions Modules to provide enhanced usage flexibility. Currently available in Europe, Middle East and Africa, NA, CALA, and Asia.

Nortel marketing programs are available to assist authorized channel partners in providing support to SMB customer’s converged voice, data and application needs. These programs are tailored by region and include such items as partner tools focused on demand generation, straightforward SMB solution packages, customer centric promotions, incentives and optional services to facilitate an optimized deployment.

About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel’s technologies are designed to help eliminate today’s barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. 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”, “targets”, “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 from those contemplated in forward-looking statements. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel’s Annual Report on Form10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other 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.
**E.D. Goutos SA is one of the leading real estate firms in Greece and is part of the Global Real Estate Group E.D. GOUTOS S.A. (www.Goutos.com). Thanks to its understanding of what advanced technology has to offer to real estate industry, Goutos Group is one step ahead by enabling all collaborators from all over the world that are also members of “GOUTOS WEB REAL ESTATE”, to cooperate and function under the frame of a secure electronic sharing of information for the provisions of a professional service that is offered to the clientele. Goutos Group operates directly or through partners in 30 countries in the world including Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.
Use of the terms “partner” and “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership between Nortel and any other party.