du Selects Nortel to Deliver Next Generation Network, Multimedia Services in UAE

Expanded Network, SIP Applications to Help du Drive Business, Residential Growth

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Telecom service provider du ** plans to deliver ’anytime, anywhere’ IP Centrex and multimedia services across a wider geographical area powered by a carrier solution from Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT ].

The expanded network will enable du to respond to massive demand for service from businesses and residential users linked to the current exponential growth in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Convergence of media and telecommunications is an important trend in the region, changing the way people communicate, their entertainment preferences and their day-to-day lives. Services from du tap into this trend, offering converged landline, broadband and TV services to customers living in Dubai and providing the benefits of one single monthly bill and one customer care point-of-contact for all services.

du’s Next Generation Network (NGN) expansion has at its heart the Nortel Communication Server 2000 IP multimedia softswitch and Nortel Media Gateway 15000 . This solution allows du to grow its geographical footprint, enabling it to offer media and telecommunications services to residences and businesses across the United Arab Emirates. It also enables du to attract future customers by delivering new communications services such as Unified Communications and IP Powered Business services based on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) technology including presence, collaboration and fixed mobile convergence.

du’s newly expanded network will be completely secure and have full redundancy to ensure that services run smoothly and free from interruption. The du agreement also includes fully managed services from Nortel’s Global Services portfolio, including building and operating the system and knowledge transfer.

“du’s initial success with our suite of converged media and telecommunications services has swiftly created the need for a network upgrade to satisfy current and future demands for capacity, quality, speed and new services,” said Osman Sultan, chief executive officer, du. “Furthermore, the strategic location of UAE, situated as it is between Europe and the emerging markets in Asia, has reinvented Dubai as a world communications gateway and a conduit to markets in the Middle East. This location and the burgeoning financial success of the UAE has created major growth in international carrier voice traffic.”

“The Middle East region and du are of primary importance for Nortel,” said Ramin Attari, vice president, Nortel Middle East. “With this new success Nortel is increasing leadership in the NGN 2.0 domain for carrier voice and multimedia applications serving business and consumers.”

With more than 60 wins in the first half of 2008, Nortel now has more than 300 Carrier VoIP customers globally.

In August, Gartner, Inc. a leading information technology research and advisory company, issued its 2008 “Magic Quadrant” for Softswitch Architecture. Gartner positioned Nortel in the Leader’s quadrant of its Magic Quadrant (MQ) for Softswitch Architecture, 2008.***

Nortel was ranked by Dell’Oro as the leader in Carrier VoIP globally every year for the past six years (2002 through 2007). As of 2Q08 Nortel has shipped over 95 million Carrier IP Voice and Multimedia ports to wireline, wireless and cable carriers globally.

About du
du, the integrated telecom service provider for consumer , SME’s and large Enterprises in the UAE, launched mobile telecommunication services on 11 February 2007 across the UAE in addition to internet and pay TV services in some of the free zones of Dubai. Call Select, the first of du’s nationwide Fixed line services for voice telephony, was launched in July 2007.
du is 40 percent owned by the UAE Federal Government, 20 percent by Mubadala Development Company, 20 percent by TECOM Investments and 20 percent by public shareholders. It is listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and trades under the name du.
With more than 160 data roaming agreements with different carriers worldwide, du customers can use the BlackBerry solution in more than 70 countries worldwide. du is also continuously working on further increasing its international roaming footprint to cover more and more countries.
du was recognized as the ’Best Brand’ for its innovative branding and outstanding success at the Telecom World Awards Middle East 2007. www.du.ae **

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.
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***The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2008 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.