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February 26, 2002
Nortel Networks Remote Office Connects Virtual Workers With Voice Over IP
Solution Aids in Cost Savings, Employee Retention Efforts
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Nortel Networks* [NYSE/TSE: NT] today announced availability of Remote Office 9110 and Remote Office 9115, which will allow home-based remote workers to have the same telephone sets, features and services as they would have working in the office.
Companies are looking at using remote office solutions to lower costs through leased line expenses and to use remote access as a recruitment and retention tool at a time when working from home is an increasingly attractive alternative. According to the International Teleworkers Association and Council, there were 28 million workers operating away from the office in 2001. Employee benefits include flexible work schedules and the elimination of commuting, while employers benefit from increased employee satisfaction, productivity and savings in real estate. Remote Office is part of Nortel Networks strategy to deliver Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions to companies regardless of worker locations – headquarters, branch or home offices – while maintaining voice quality and reliability. "Companies are looking for ways to cost-effectively tie together teleworkers with all the technology available at the corporate headquarters," said Joe Gagan, senior analyst, the Yankee Group. "The catch is that it has previously been extremely expensive to enable teleworkers to gain the same feature set of the phone system at the office. Solutions such as the Remote Office are exactly what businesses are looking to implement." Remote Office 9110 and 9115 are designed to extend the features and functionality of Nortel Networks Meridian* PBX and Succession* IP-PBX to remote workers via VoIP, providing a cost-effective, resilient solution for telecommuters, call center agents, after hours/on call support personnel and small or home-based offices. Remote Office 9110 supports a full range of Meridian 2000 digital series telephones, while Remote Office 9115 also supports the Meridian Digital 3900 series portfolio. Both solutions are based on IP technology, making them flexible enough to support a variety of broadband access methods as well as traditional analog lines. Remote Office offers a unique Quality of Service transitioning feature that allows the voice quality of a live call to be maintained by dynamically transferring the VoIP connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) in the event IP network performance degrades. This feature is transparent to the user, offering a high level of voice quality and reliability. "Our Voice over IP Remote Office solution allows our customers to offer more flexibility to their employees, giving them a greater pool of resources, such as work-at-home parents, or people who live too far away from the office to commute daily," said Alex Pierson, voice and Voice over IP general manager, Nortel Networks. "For workers who travel to other branch offices or occasionally work from home, Remote Office allows them to use the same office phones in all locations, eliminating the need to remember different features and codes for multiple locations." "Remote Office brings the death of distance for our enterprise customers, making the minimum size for an enterprise location one – an employee working in a home office," Pierson said. Remote Office can operate with Nortel Networks Contivity* family of security products, providing a high level of security for the customer’s network. The Contivity portfolio supports firewall services, authentication of endpoints over IP, and end-to-end encryption of VoIP packets via IPSec as they travel across the public Internet. Nortel Networks is an industry leader and innovator focused on transforming how the world communicates and exchanges information. The company is supplying its service provider and enterprise customers with communications technology and infrastructure to enable value-added IP data, voice and multimedia services spanning Metro and Enterprise Networks, Wireless Networks and Optical Long Haul Networks. As a global company, Nortel Networks does business in more than 150 countries. More information about Nortel Networks can be found on the Web at www.nortelnetworks.com. Certain information included in this press release is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Factors which could cause results or events to differ from current expectations include, among other things: the severity and duration of the industry adjustment; the sufficiency of our restructuring activities, including the potential for higher actual costs to be incurred in connection with restructuring actions compared to the estimated costs of such actions; fluctuations in operating results and general industry, economic and market conditions and growth rates; the ability to recruit and retain qualified employees; fluctuations in cash flow, the level of outstanding debt and debt ratings; the ability to make acquisitions and/or integrate the operations and technologies of acquired businesses in an effective manner; the impact of rapid technological and market change; the impact of price and product competition; international growth and global economic conditions, particularly in emerging markets and including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of rationalization in the telecommunications industry; the dependence on new product development; the uncertainties of the Internet; the impact of the credit risks of our customers and the impact of increased provision of customer financing and commitments; stock market volatility; the entrance into an increased number of supply, turnkey, and outsourcing contracts which contain delivery, installation, and performance provisions, which, if not met, could result in the payment of substantial penalties or liquidated damages; the ability to obtain timely, adequate and reasonably priced component parts from suppliers and internal manufacturing capacity; the future success of our strategic alliances; and the adverse resolution of litigation. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see the reports filed by Nortel Networks with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel Networks 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 Networks, the Nortel Networks logo, the Globemark, Meridian, Succession and Contivity are trademarks of Nortel Networks. Contact for Press and Analysts:Dana Hughens
Nortel Networks
615-432-4636
dhughens@nortel.com
Giorgia Casnedi
Nortel Networks
44 1628 433 117
casnedi@nortel.com
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