Nortel Signs 2G/3G Deal with Cingular Wireless Technology to Reduce Costs and Boost Network Capacity

FEBRUARY 14, 2006

Cingular Wireless, has signed a three-year contract with Nortel  to provide wireless network services and equipment.

Nortel's GSM and UMTS wireless voice core technology will support Cingular's rapid network expansion and subscriber growth and help enable Cingular to reduce costs, increase network reliability and improve the quality of service for subscribers through the use of a more cost efficient, packet-switched core network.

"This contract represents a new footprint for Nortel and is a testament to our leadership in voice over packet technology and 3G wireless broadband solutions," said Mike Zafirovski, president and CEO, Nortel. "We're applying our networking expertise from wireless and wireline packet voice technology to help make operators like Cingular more successful."

"We're glad to extend our relationship with Nortel as we continue to enhance our core network and expand our 3G offering," said Ed Reynolds, president of network services for Cingular Wireless.

Under the new agreement, Nortel will deploy its 2G/3G 3GPP Release 4 compliant MSC (Mobile Switching Center) Server and Media Gateway products to support Cingular's UMTS/HSDPA network deployment. These products are compliant with 3GPP Bearer Independent Core Network standards. Nortel's R4 technology will help provide a significant increase in call handling capacity - up to 300% according to Nortel estimates.

Nortel has already deployed more than two million ports of its MSC solution to support Cingular's national 2G/GSM network in major markets across the United States. According to Nortel estimates, this is believed to be the industry's largest in-service R4 core network installation to date. Nortel has been a supplier of wireless infrastructure equipment in the Cingular Wireless network since 1995.