Nortel Pursues Sea of Opportunity With Submarine Network Solutions for Undersea Networks

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Aug. 12, 2009) - Nortel(1) NRTLQ is enabling network operators to upgrade their undersea - or submarine - networks to 40G speeds, providing a simple way to quadruple network capacity while spanning distances thousands of kilometers across the world's oceans.

As the world becomes more connected across countries, continents and cultures, the submarine networks that carry that network traffic beneath seas and oceans are increasingly nearing full capacity. Nortel's submarine solutions are available today, have already been deployed or trialed by multiple carriers, and provide a cost-effective way to upgrade key network links without having to rip and replace complex underwater fiber deployments.

"Our full set of submarine network solutions build on Nortel's industry-leading 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine," said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks, Nortel. "The application of Nortel's optical technology in submarine networks underscores the continued innovation and diversity of Nortel's 40G/100G solutions, which are becoming the natural choice for metropolitan, regional and long haul optical solutions."

For networks up to 450km, Nortel has teamed with MPB Communications(2) to enable carriers to upgrade their networks to 40G speeds without the need to deploy costly optical signal amplifiers - also called repeaters - along the sea floor. Unrepeatered submarine solutions are built without undersea amplification, which effectively eliminates the cost of repeaters and electrical power. Extending the reach and capacity of unrepeatered solutions provides network operators with significant CAPEX and OPEX savings. Using powerful amplification equipment from MPB Communications paired with Nortel's 40G Adaptive Optical Engine, service providers can now deploy these "unrepeatered" undersea links at a fraction of the cost of traditional submarine networks that use powered underwater equipment.

"Typically, submarine fiber cable is already in place carrying 2.5 or 10Gbps channels," said Dr. Jane Bachynski, president, MPB Communications. "By creating the ability to upgrade the capacity of these cables to 10Gbps and 40Gbps, we provide a great value proposition that leverages customers' initial investment."

In instances where a submarine link is required for longer distances, Nortel's 40G solution can be used with underwater repeaters. Since 2008, Nortel's existing 40G coherent solution with Dual Polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DP QPSK) modulation has been deployed over underwater distances of 4,000km. Ultra-long distance connections of 9,000km are now possible through Nortel's recent development of a 40G Ultra Long Haul solution which employs coherent Dual Polarization Binary Phase Shift Keying (DP BPSK) technoloy that can more than double the distance that 40G traffic can travel.

In a separate Nortel press release today, Nortel and Southern Cross have successfully conducted a 40G trial across an existing 8,000km repeatered submarine network link between Auckland, New Zealand and Hawaii. To trial the 40G channels, Nortel equipment was simply added to both ends of the Southern Cross network that included third-party submarine networking equipment.

For carriers with existing 10G networks, this Nortel 40G solution can "bookend" an existing repeatered submarine network to quickly increase the capacity of the network. Nortel's unique ability to send 40G traffic at 10G speeds allows it to easily integrate with other vendors' existing 10G network equipment.

With 49 wins to date for its 40G solution, Nortel has been leading the industry in 40G shipments for the past three quarters, including a 41 percent share in Q1 2009 based on the Dell'Oro Group. Nortel is also a leader in the development of 100G solutions, with eight successful 100G field trials already announced and availability of Nortel 100G equipment planned for later this year.

About Nortel
Nortel delivers 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. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.

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