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Nortel: Nortel Introduces Industry-Leading Lifetime Warranty for Data Portfolio

^{Published on 2009-06-09 03:34:32, Last Modified on 2009-06-09 03:37:19 - Market Wire}
 

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA--(Marketwire - June 9, 2009) - Nortel(1) (TSX:NT)(OTCBB:NRTLQ) today introduced a comprehensive Lifetime Warranty for the company's stackable [ Ethernet Routing Switch (ERS) portfolios ]. The new warranty features innovative lifecycle support elements that make it unique in the industry, including iron-clad service support during the critical implementation phase and transparency into the product development roadmap to tailor software updates to precise requirements. This enables customers to chart their network future with unprecedented confidence and flexibility.

"Warranty and support options for fixed Ethernet switching platforms are becoming critical factors in enterprise purchase decisions as part of the total cost of ownership," said William Terrill, principal analyst for Enterprise Network Systems, Current Analysis. "Enterprises looking to buy new switches should consider life-time warranties and support as a major requirement going forward."

"This places Nortel in the best-in-class position for lifecycle support. Our Lifetime Warranty is the most comprehensive, the most future-looking available and is focused squarely on delivering customer benefit," said [ Joel Hackney ], president, Nortel Enterprise Solutions. "It demonstrates our commitment to innovation in every aspect of our business. More importantly, it allows our customers to plan the future of their business with confidence."

The Nortel Lifetime Warranty covers all of the company's stackable Ethernet solutions. This includes Nortel's [ ERS 2500 ] series, optimized for edge networking, large enterprises and branch deployments; the [ ERS 4500 ] series, which is designed to provide the foundation for real-time communications and is designed with leading scalability and deployment customization features; and Nortel's [ ERS 5000 ] line, including the newly-introduced [ ERS 5600 ] products, which serve both data center and core deployments with a flexible architecture designed for real-time communications, critical applications and communications-enabled business processes.

The Nortel Lifetime Warranty provides industry-leading warranty parameters, including:

- Lifetime Technical Support. To ensure business continuity, Nortel provides full lifecycle support for the switch family, from the product introduction phase to ongoing day-to-day operations, Nortel support is available at no cost for the life of the product.

- Advanced Technical Support. Unique in the industry, this provides comprehensive support for customers the first 90 days after purchase. The advanced support is available when customers need it most, during the network implementation phase.

- Lifetime Next Business Day replacement for hardware in North America and next-day shipment for the rest of the world. Rapid replacement of equipment in the event of a malfunction minimizes downtime and service interruption for mission-critical operations.

- Optional software subscription updates. Nortel's Software Release Subscription (SRS) service entitles customers to access all releases of relevant software. This, combined with plan of record transparency, provides comprehensive planning and deployment flexibility.

This new offering improves Nortel's already strong position in the area of total cost of ownership. Because Nortel's switches are designed to be up to 40 percent more power efficient(2), energy costs are likewise reduced. Combined with the company's switch advantage - third-party validated to provide up to seven-times the resiliency and twenty times the performance compared to that of the primary competition(2) - the result is a need for fewer products to be deployed, saving capital, maintenance and operational expenses.

"Nortel has always been a leader in secure, high performance, resilient networks for mission critical enterprise applications. This Lifetime Warranty builds on our data business momentum and is the next step demonstrating our commitment to putting the customers' business model first," said John McHugh, vice president, Enterprise Networking Solutions, Nortel. "We've recently refreshed nearly all of the products in our data portfolio. In the last year we introduced five new products and brought to market the first stackable solution to break the terabit barrier - the previous threshold for switch performance. Our experience providing world-class networking solutions enables us to build the foundation for the real-time business communications far into the future."

Industry response to the plan has been overwhelmingly positive.

"Once again, Nortel has set a new standard for excellence in the industry," said Stuart Chandler, president and CEO, Optivor Technologies. "The flexibility of the plan is unprecedented. This warranty removes the uncertainty inherent in network planning and allows customers to take what they need without having to pay for capabilities they don't. One of the key aspects that makes this so attractive is that Nortel is there to hold customers' hands during the network implementation phase - when they need it most. More importantly, it helps us drive our business and provide the best solutions to our customers. I give it two-thumbs up."

Dan Collins, director of sales for Summatis, a Division of Xeta Technologies, explained "Nortel is helping us address the budget constraints of our customers by offering Next Business Day with Lifetime Support on their superior ERS line. This new product support enables our customers to maintain their networks with the budget limitations they may be facing in today's economy."

"Our reputation is built on delivering the best all-around communications networks in the industry and our customers rely on us to provide their business communications foundation," said Kurt Ruesch, vice president of Product Sales, Westcon. "In this environment, the future financial concerns of our customers and their end users are paramount. The enhanced ERS warranties - on top of the superior performance of their ERS line of switches and Nortel's built-in energy efficiency - deliver the best TCO model available. Nortel's next business day offering, coupled with the Lifetime Support warranty allows all parties to run and maintain their network and quality of same without fear of obsolescence or concern over future costs to keep their cutting-edge technology current."

"This is a bold move from Nortel in terms of guaranteeing their data products, and showing their commitment to helping customers meet their longer-term business communications goals," said David Patterson, vice president, Central Region Sales, Cygnal Technologies. "Providing a comprehensive portfolio and technically advanced solutions, all at a reasonable price tag, makes for a strong value proposition."

Ronco's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing, John Wrona, applauded the program. "After all of the considerations, value is king. The best-performing network, gold-plated and with all the bells and whistles, isn't worth a grain of salt if it isn't working. It is this kind of innovation that provides the differentiation in the industry that enables us to add to our comprehensive Ronco Protection Plan that puts customers first and continues to grow our Nortel business."

"CXtec is committed to supporting customers as they upgrade their networks at their own pace. Nortel is helping us achieve this philosophy with their new lifetime support warranty. This enables us to plan for our customers' future requirements, free from uncertainty to ensure that are able to use their scarce resources to run our networks," said Frank Kobuszewski, vice president of the Technology Solutions group at CXtec.

Further details of the new Lifetime Warranty, available July 1, can be accessed below:

Services Brief: [ http://www.nortel.com/products/01/ers/service_brief_ers_lifetime_warranty.pdf ]

Frequently Asked Questions: [ http://www.nortel.com/products/01/ers/faq_ers_lifetime_warranty.pdf ]

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.

(1)Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks.

(2)The Tolly Group Report Number 208298, July 2008, reported the results of a power consumption evaluation of six Nortel converged data network products consisting of large and medium core and wiring closet Ethernet Routing Switches (ERS), enterprise branch office routers, and IP phones compared to similar Cisco products on the basis of power consumption and heat dissipation, and five-year operational cost. See also The Tolly Group Report Number 208275, January 2008, and Info-Tech Research Group Report (January 30, 2008).