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Czech Railways Selects Kapsch CarrierCom, Nortel for GSM-R Solution


WEBWIRE

GSM-R Contract for International Railway Corridor IV

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Czech Railways has selected Nortel* [OTC: NRTLQ] GSM-R technology to provide wireless communications to the 207 km Czech section of the International Railway Corridor IV between Austria and Poland. Nortel partner Kapsch CarrierCom will supply and deploy the network. The project began in June 2009 and is scheduled for completion by end of 2009.

The new GSM-R network extension will be installed on the corridor line connecting Austria to Poland from Breclav to Prerov in the Czech Republic to Petrovice u Karviné on the Polish border.

This latest GSM-R contract follows announcements from 2007 awarding Kapsch CarrierCom and Nortel the Czech Railways GSM-R technology contracts for railway lines from the Czech Republic through Slovakia and Hungary to destinations in Greece, Turkey and Romania.

“Kapsch was traditionally an expert in the analog sector and today, thanks to the quality of our work and our ongoing relationship with Nortel, we have a leading position in GSM-R, the next generation digital wireless train communication system,” explains Thomas Schoepf, Kapsch CarrierCom Board of Directors. “We are pleased with the success of our joint GSM-R projects in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria and we also believe that we have good opportunities to secure upcoming projects in other South-Eastern European countries.”

“Railway technology is developing at a fast pace. Higher train speeds and more demanding security regulations make it necessary to implement reliable and trusted new communication systems across railway networks,” adds Cyrill Busslinger, country manager Austria, Nortel.

“GSM-R is an important component of these new communication systems and Nortel leads technology development in the GSM-R sector. Nortel´s proven GSM-R technology and Kapsch CarrierCom’s longstanding expertise in implementing GSM-R networks, provide a strong foundation for the modernization of the Czech Railway network. The win of this project also shows the continued commitment of our clients to Nortel and its GSM-R solutions.”

Nortel’s GSM-R solution enables Czech Railways to improve safety, reduce operational costs and increase average train speeds, which in turn will cut travel times. Nortel’s technology will also help increase network interoperability and support new voice applications running over the GSM-R network such as railway emergency and group conference calls. These features are of key importance for track to train communications along the railway corridor.

The solution for the Czech Railways corridor IV includes Nortel Base Transceiver Station (BTS) 9000 and 6000 products, Nortel’s Base Station Controller (BSC) 3000 and Nortel Trans Coding Unit (TCU) 3000. The new contract includes an extension to the Czech Railway’s switching subsystem and an upgrade to Nortel’s intelligent network and GPRS packet core solution. Three additional repeater stations will be created to ensure network coverage in locations that would otherwise be difficult to reach. The Kapsch CarrierCom Railway Provisioning Manager is used for subscriber and configuration management of the network and provides user and administration tools with a web-based graphical user interface. This agreement will enable Czech Railways to extend the benefits of GSM-R communications to this strategic international corridor.

GSM-R helps increase the efficiency and safety of the railway by supporting reliable and secure communications among railway operational staff, including drivers, dispatchers, train engineers and station controllers. GSM-R is part of the new European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) standard and carries the signaling information directly to the train driver, enables faster train speeds and increases traffic density while maintaining a high level of safety. GSM-R is specified for train speeds up to 500 km/h, so it is ideally suited for the planned speed increases in conventional rail networks as well as for new high-speed routes.

Nortel has more than 15 years experience with GSM-R mobile communications technology and is currently providing GSM-R on three continents. With a market share close to 60 percent of the 117,500 Km of rail tracks installed using the GSM-R system, Nortel is the number one GSM-R provider globally. Nortel has been awarded national GSM-R contracts in Czech Republic, Austria , Bulgaria, France , Germany , Lithuania , and the UK as well as large GSM-R deployments in Algeria , China , Italy , India , Slovakia , Spain and in Turkey .

About Kapsch CarrierCom
Kapsch CarrierCom is one of European leaders in telecommunication solutions for fixed and mobile network operators. Kapsch CarrierCom covers all fields: from analysis, consulting, design, product development, integration, installation and training to maintenance and operation of complete networks.
For more information please visit www.kapsch.net **

About Nortel
Nortel delivers 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. 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.
**This is a 3rd party link as described in our Web linking practices .
Use of the terms “partner” and “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership between Nortel and any other party.



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