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TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 18, 2009) - Continuing its efforts to boost service provider revenue potential and ability to deliver the latest business voice and multimedia IP solutions to end users, Nortel* (OTCBB:NRTLQ) Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions (CVAS) and Sigma Systems announced a new agreement to supply technology and services for Bell Aliant's next-generation network across Atlantic Canada. Nortel's market-leading CVAS solutions combined with Sigma Systems' Service Management Portfolio of fulfillment solutions will allow Bell Aliant to deliver advanced VoIP, high-speed data and video/IPTV services to residential and business subscribers.

"We're pleased to be collaborating with Nortel and Sigma Systems," said Ivan Toner, VP of Engineering and CIO, Bell Aliant. "This positions us well in the delivery of next-generation services to our customers."

Bell Aliant serves customers in six Canadian provinces and is one of North America's largest regional communications providers.

Nortel's CVAS Solution arms service providers with the ability to tackle the complex and time-consuming task of provisioning and activating new IP phones and other SIP devices for end users because the solution allows devices to automatically locate the server, load the latest software and register to the appropriate VoIP call server. Nortel's solution also helps service providers to reduce administration tasks and truck rolls for customer support, accept orders and remotely provision and activate IP telephony services for subscribers. This will help improve subscriber satisfaction and loyalty because subscribers will be able to use their IP phones and devices more quickly.

"Nortel and Bell Aliant have a long-standing relationship and their continued investment in our CVAS portfolio is a testament to our industry-leading ability to help service providers boost subscriber loyalty by providing high-quality IP communications to subscribers," said Samih Elhage, president, CVAS, Nortel. "Nortel's IP Powered Business voice and multimedia solution paired with Sigma's device management capability enables Bell Aliant to deploy and provision advanced IP voice and video services quickly and cost-effectively."

As part of the new agreement announced today, Sigma Systems will supply OSS fulfillment solutions, including its [ Service Management Platform ] and Device Provisioning Manager, which will allow Bell Aliant to more effectively provision, activate and manage services for its subscribers.

"Bell Aliant is a great example of a next-generation operator – a service provider that delivers to its customers the latest services available via IP technology and fibre," said Tim Spencer, president and COO of [ Sigma Systems ]**. "Sigma's Service Management Portfolio of award-winning fulfillment solutions and our expertise in delivering multiple services, including VoIP, digital IP-based TV and broadband, will help Bell Aliant achieve its next-generation services evolution."

Nortel provides an [ IP Powered Business solution ] to Bell Aliant, including Nortel's [ Communication Server 2000 ] softswitches and Nortel's [ Agile Communication Environment ] framework. Nortel leverages Sigma's Device Provisioning Manager (DPM) capability, which enables service providers to easily auto-configure and provision business and residential end-user SIP devices and VoIP phone lines. Nortel offers the SIP end device auto-provisioning solution as a bundled component with any of Nortel's Softswitch and Telephony Application Servers. The two companies recently [ expanded ]their collaboration and have 12 joint customers across North America and Europe.

Nortel has shipped more than 115 million Carrier VoIP and Multimedia ports to more than 350 wireline and wireless carriers globally. According to Infonetics Research's recent report, Service Provider VoIP Equipment and Subscribers Market Share, Size, and Forecasts - 2Q09, Nortel kept its global leadership position for carrier softswitches with 30.2 percent market share. Furthermore, according to Infonetics, during the second quarter of 2009, Nortel kept its position as the dominant softswitch supplier in both North America and EMEA. According to Dell'Oro, Nortel has [ consistently been ranked ] as the #1 Global Carrier VoIP and Softswitch leader since 2002. Nortel CVAS has customer deployments in all continents with leading carriers and provides VoIP solutions to two thirds of IDC's worldwide listing of top 20 carriers (by revenue).

With its Service Management Portfolio, Sigma Systems enables the provisioning, delivery and management of integrated offerings, including TV, VoIP, broadband and mobile services. Leading operators have used Sigma's award-winning fulfillment solutions to provision more than 7 million VoIP lines and deliver more than 100 million IP-based services. For more information about Sigma, visit [ http://www.sigma-systems.com ]**.

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.

**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.