Nortel Signs Up New Regional Carrier Customers Across U.S.

Carrier VoIP Momentum Continues with More than 135 CS 1500 Customers Globally

TORONTO - Nortel* [TSX: NT | OTC: NRTLQ] has signed up several new regional carriers across the U.S. bringing the total number of Communication Server (CS) 1500 customers to more than 135 globally.

Hancock Telephone **, ArkWest Communications **, Venture Communications Cooperative ** and Dakota Central Telecommunications ** are the latest regional carriers to select Nortel’s CS 1500 solution. This IP multimedia softswitch gives regional subscribers and small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) a low-cost but highly-reliable solution for providing traditional voice services, as well as multimedia applications like IPTV, fiber to the premises, and end-user Web portal access.

“It is clear that the value of our carrier VoIP and multimedia solutions are resonating with customers,” said Samih Elhage, president, Carrier VoIP and Applications, Nortel. “The CS 1500 is high performance VoIP in a small package, bringing the latest voice and multimedia applications to regional carriers at a price they can afford. With our recently announced release of the CS 1500, we’ve added new revenue generating applications like unified messaging, single number service, subscriber web portal and on-demand conferencing. These new applications help increase customer satisfaction and retention while providing regional operators with a VoIP platform that allows them to reap the maintenance and cost benefits of a converged network.”

Hancock Telephone of Hancock, New York, is the first independent telephone company to install a Nortel CS 1500 softswitch and IP network in the state of New York. With the CS 1500, Hancock Telephone will be able to drive new voice revenue from both residential and SMB subscribers with advanced VoIP applications like single number service and unified messaging. To ensure seamless service for their subscribers, Nortel will provide Hancock Telephone with all the products and professional services required to completely design, build and manage their entire network.

Arkwest Communications has been a pioneer service provider in the state of Arkansas since 1939, expanding Yell County from one pay-phone to a complete telecommunications system offering telephony, cellular, high-speed internet service and digital television. Nortel’s CS 1500 is deployed using a host and satellite softswitch model allowing Arkwest to converge their telephony and IPTV services in the most cost effective and least disruptive way for their subscribers.

Venture Communications Cooperative has been partnering with Nortel to help residents of South Dakota stay in touch with family and friends since 1980 when they deployed their first Nortel DMS-10 telephony switch. In response to recent demand for advanced communications services, Venture is expanding their network with five CS 1500 softswitches to enable services like single-number service, IPTV, click-to-call, PC access to voice messages and call logs to their subscribers.

A long-standing Nortel DMS-10 customer, Dakota Central Telecommunications, is also expanding their network with Nortel’s CS 1500 to offer their subscribers cutting-edge features including click-to-call, unified messaging and end-user web portals.

For quotes from each of these customers using Nortel Carrier VoIP solutions, please click here .

The CS 1500 allows a phased migration path to VoIP allowing many carriers to reuse existing equipment, which can help reduce capital investment by up to 50 percent. The CS 1500 is also an environmentally friendly solution that can help save service providers money on annual electric utilities.

Due to its small size and simple design, the Nortel CS 1500 helps decrease service provider’s costs associated with installation and engineering as well. The CS 1500 is a complete solution that is housed in a single 19" equipment rack. In its smallest configuration, it will occupy approximately two feet of rack space. A single equipment rack will accommodate a fully configured CS 1500 which can serve over 48,000 lines.

Nortel will be showcasing its solutions for regional service providers at the Rural Cellular Association’s 17th Annual Convention & Exhibition ** in Las Vegas. Visit Nortel at booth number 626 from April 28 to May 1.

According to Dell’Oro Group **, Nortel is the worldwide leader in carrier VoIP and has maintained that position since 2002. Nortel has shipped more than 100 million carrier IP voice and multimedia ports to more than 340 carriers globally. Nortel provides VoIP solutions to two thirds of IDC’s worldwide listing of top 20 carriers (by revenue). Since the original launch of the CS 1500 in June 2006, Nortel has shipped more than 180 CS 1500 switches to more than 135 customers globally.

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 .

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