22 July 2009

TORONTO - Committed to delivering leading technologies to regional and rural local exchange carriers, Nortel* [OTC: NRTLQ] enhanced its portfolio of carrier VoIP and application solutions with the latest release of its Communications Server (CS) 1500 . Expected to be available in the third quarter 2009, its new features will allow carriers to be more efficient by taking advantage of remote upgrades and introducing new billing, operations, administration and maintenance capabilities.

In addition, the latest enhancements to the CS 1500 utilize SIP business trunking to help carriers meet the demands of their small and medium-size business (SMB) customers and offer a single broadband connection with both voice and data traffic to SMBs with on-site PBX's. This helps SMBs cut costs by paying only for the capacity they need and use, rather than purchasing a large amount of fixed capacity. The CS 1500 also enables carriers to deliver IP-Powered applications like unified messaging, click-to-call, single-number service and end user web portals.

"Nortel has strengthened its carrier VoIP products through key solution enhancements," said Diane Myers, directing analyst, Infonetics Research. "What is important for rural and regional carriers is high performance platforms that offer the same reliability and features as legacy circuit switches and also scale to match their current and future network plans."

"Nortel has long recognized the need for carriers of all shapes and sizes to find a cost-effective way to offer advanced voice and multimedia services to business and residential subscribers," said Samih Elhage, president, Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions, Nortel. "The new CS 1500 product enhancements demonstrate our continued commitment to delivering consistent, reliable and high-quality business voice and multimedia solutions to carriers across the globe."

Nortel's new CS 1500 product enhancements help carriers deliver next-generation IP voice and multimedia features that improve the communications experience for both business and residential subscribers. The enhancements also include core infrastructure upgrades, which help carriers decrease costs and improve time-to-market.

CS 1500 Enhancements include:

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SIP Business Trunking: Provides carriers an IP connection to PBXs, which allows them to use a single broadband connection for both voice and data traffic to businesses with on-site PBXs. Having a single connection helps cut costs because it eliminates the need to invest in costly (and less functional) TDM media gateways or PRI trunks to interface with the PSTN.
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Remote upgrades: Provides a more cost-effective method of applying a software release. When the remote upgrade method is used, a Nortel technician can access the carrier's switch remotely to direct the software upgrade.
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Hunt Group Queuing: Allows business subscribers to ensure that important calls do not go unanswered. If all lines in a hunt group are engaged, incoming calls are placed in a queue while they are waiting to be answered, and connected as soon as a line is free.
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Contact Center Interoperability: Enterprise customers using Nortel's Business Communication Manager and Communication Server 1000 can be assured that their contact centers will continue to process calls trouble free with the CS 1500 as their connection to the outside world.
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Standard Service Profiles with Graphical User Interface: This simplifies the carrier's task of provisioning a variety of service packages to residential subscribers.

Nortel's Carrier VoIP experts will be on hand at OPASTCO's 46th Annual Summer Convention and Tradeshow ** July 25-29th in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Nortel has a strong track record of successes with sales to regional carriers globally. Nortel's CS 1500 is created specifically to address the budgetary constraints of the regional carrier market allowing them to offer the same advanced voice and multimedia services to their customers as carriers located in large metropolitan areas. For more information on Nortel's CS 1500, click here .

Recently published reports from Dell'Oro Group and Infonetics Research ranked Nortel as the worldwide leader with the largest revenues in the carrier softswitch market for the first quarter of 2009. Nortel has shipped more than 110 million Carrier VoIP and Multimedia ports to over 340 wireline and wireless carriers globally. In addition, Nortel provides VoIP solutions to two thirds of IDC's worldwide listing of top 20 carriers (by revenue).

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