New Deployments Fuel Economic Development, Lower Operational Costs and Increase Public Safety MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nortel(x) (NYSE/TSX: NT) today announced new municipal wireless deployments that demonstrate the Company's strength in helping governments embrace broadband wireless as a strategic way to deliver efficient services that keep communities safe and productive, as well as economically competitive. From rural to urban deployments, Nortel's Municipal Wireless Solution is being used by several new customers in North America, including Carlsbad, New Mexico; Occoquan Wireless in Occoquan, Virginia and Ronco Communications in Niagara County, New York. Nortel combines a comprehensive portfolio of Wireless Mesh, Wireless LAN and WiMAX technologies with a full suite of Nortel Global Services, giving customers the solutions they need to design, deploy, support and evolve municipal wireless networks. Nortel's experience designing, launching and installing hundreds of public and private wireless networks around the world helps customers offset risk in building privately-funded networks. For municipalities interested in partnering with private sector companies, Nortel can help connect customers with operators that best meet the economic development and public safety needs of the community. With a population of 26,000, Carlsbad, New Mexico is on the brink of massive and rapid economic growth. The city's close proximity to California makes it an attractive location for high tech and hospitality businesses, as well as an ideal travel destination for thousands of tourists each year. To compliment the success of the growing community, the Carlsbad Department of Development worked with local service provider Windstream Communications to deploy Nortel's Wireless Mesh Network solution to create a wireless hot zone covering the commercial downtown area. The new network enables residents and visitors to use laptops or wireless handheld devices to access the public Internet and helps the City of Carlsbad expand its economic opportunities by attracting and retaining new businesses. "With an influx of economic activity and new growth, we needed a broadband wireless service that would further Carlsbad's ability to compete with other urban areas for new business while at the same time maintaining the charm of its small town roots, and Nortel gave us the perfect solution," said Robert Detweiler, executive director, Carlsbad Department of Development. "Our long term vision is to expand wireless broadband access throughout the city and into many of the new complexes being built along the Pecos River. As our community grows, so too will our wireless network-it is the backbone of our economic development." The picturesque town of Occoquan, Virginia is situated 20 miles south of Washington, D.C. on the banks of the Occoquan River and has gained notoriety as one of America's most haunted towns. Occoquan Wireless, a franchise of Annapolis Wireless, is using Nortel's Wireless Mesh Network solution to deliver broadband service in Occoquan for merchants, residents and the thousands of tourists who visit the town each year. By offering sponsorships and advertising on its splash page to local businesses, Occoquan Wireless is able to provide wireless broadband coverage free of charge across Occoquan's waterfront Historic District which features more than 100 antique, art and craft shops and restaurants, as well as a bustling marina. "One of our most important goals is to improve conditions for merchants and visitors in our historic district, and wireless broadband access is an important step in that direction," said Earnie Porta, mayor of Occoquan. Nortel is showcasing its Municipal Wireless Solution at Muniwireless 2006 Minneapolis, October 23-24, demonstrating how broadband wireless deployments can help governments lower operational costs, enhance the level of municipal government services and increase economic development and public safety for communities. About Nortel Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world's most critical information. Our next-generation technologies, for both service providers and enterprises, span access and core networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications, and help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people with information. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at http://www.nortel.com/. For the latest Nortel news, visit http://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. Further, actual results or events could differ materially from those contemplated in forward-looking statements as a result of the following (i) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's restatements and related matters including: Nortel's most recent restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements and related events; the negative impact on Nortel and NNL of their most recent restatement and delay in filing their financial statements and related periodic reports; legal judgments, fines, penalties or settlements, or any substantial regulatory fines or other penalties or sanctions, related to the ongoing regulatory and criminal investigations of Nortel in the U.S. and Canada; any significant pending civil litigation actions not encompassed by Nortel's proposed class action settlement; any substantial cash payment and/or significant dilution of Nortel's existing equity positions resulting from the finalization and approval of its proposed class action settlement, or if such class action settlement is not finalized, any larger settlements or awards of damages in respect of such class actions; any unsuccessful remediation of Nortel's material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting resulting in an inability to report Nortel's results of operations and financial condition accurately and in a timely manner; the time required to implement Nortel's remedial measures; Nortel's inability to access, in its current form, its shelf registration filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Nortel's below investment grade credit rating and any further adverse effect on its credit rating due to Nortel's restatements of its financial statements; any adverse affect on Nortel's business and market price of its publicly traded securities arising from continuing negative publicity related to Nortel's restatements; Nortel's potential inability to attract or retain the personnel necessary to achieve its business objectives; any breach by Nortel of the continued listing requirements of the NYSE or TSX causing the NYSE and/or the TSX to commence suspension or delisting procedures; (ii) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's business including: yearly and quarterly fluctuations of Nortel's operating results; reduced demand and pricing pressures for its products due to global economic conditions, significant competition, competitive pricing practice, cautious capital spending by customers, increased industry consolidation, rapidly changing technologies, evolving industry standards, frequent new product introductions and short product life cycles, and other trends and industry characteristics affecting the telecommunications industry; the sufficiency of recently announced restructuring actions, including the potential for higher actual costs to be incurred in connection with these restructuring actions compared to the estimated costs of such actions and the ability to achieve the targeted cost savings and reductions of Nortel's unfunded pension liability deficit; any material and adverse affects on Nortel's performance if its expectations regarding market demand for particular products prove to be wrong or because of certain barriers in its efforts to expand internationally; any reduction in Nortel's operating results and any related volatility in the market price of its publicly traded securities arising from any decline in its gross margin, or fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; any negative developments associated with Nortel's supply contract and contract manufacturing agreements including as a result of using a sole supplier for key optical networking solutions components, and any defects or errors in Nortel's current or planned products; any negative impact to Nortel of its failure to achieve its business transformation objectives, including completion of the sale of its UMTS access business to Alcatel; additional valuation allowances for all or a portion of its deferred tax assets; Nortel's failure to protect its intellectual property rights, or any adverse judgments or settlements arising out of disputes regarding intellectual property; changes in regulation of the Internet and/or other aspects of the industry; Nortel's failure to successfully operate or integrate its strategic acquisitions, or failure to consummate or succeed with its strategic alliances; any negative effect of Nortel's failure to evolve adequately its financial and managerial control and reporting systems and processes, manage and grow its business, or create an effective risk management strategy; and (iii) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's liquidity, financing arrangements and capital including: the impact of Nortel's most recent restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements; any inability of Nortel to manage cash flow fluctuations to fund working capital requirements or achieve its business objectives in a timely manner or obtain additional sources of funding; high levels of debt, limitations on Nortel capitalizing on business opportunities because of credit facility covenants, or on obtaining additional secured debt pursuant to the provisions of indentures governing certain of Nortel's public debt issues and the provisions of its credit facilities; any increase of restricted cash requirements for Nortel if it is unable to secure alternative support for obligations arising from certain normal course business activities, or any inability of Nortel's subsidiaries to provide it with sufficient funding; any negative effect to Nortel of the need to make larger defined benefit plans contributions in the future or exposure to customer credit risks or inability of customers to fulfill payment obligations under customer financing arrangements; any negative impact on Nortel's ability to make future acquisitions, raise capital, issue debt and retain employees arising from stock price volatility and further declines in the market price of Nortel's publicly traded securities, or any future share consolidation resulting in a lower total market capitalization or adverse effect on the liquidity of Nortel's common shares. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel's Annual Report on Form 10-K/A, Quarterly Report 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. (x) Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks. DATASOURCE: Nortel CONTACT: Christie Blake, (978) 288-8439, ; Greta Brown, +44 1628 432968,

Copyright