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May 18, 2005
Nortel, City of Richardson Launch Public Wireless ‘Hotzone’ Network
Providing Broadband Coverage for Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival
RICHARDSON, TX – Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] and the City of Richardson, Texas have launched a public ‘hotzone’ wireless network providing free broadband access in the Galatyn Park Urban Center area of Richardson’s Telecom Corridor.
The network provides business commuters and consumers in the area with broadband capabilities for video streaming, surfing the Internet, downloading emails with large attachments and accessing corporate/private networks. It also enables City of Richardson personnel, including Police and Fire Departments, with access into the city’s emergency and other proprietary communications systems.
The network, launched in time to provide public access at this year’s Wildflower! Arts and Music Festival (May 20-22), is a field trial of Nortel’s Wireless Mesh Network solution.
“This is an extension of our relationship with Nortel. The company has already delivered an award-winning communications network for the city that is significantly cutting information technology and networking costs,” said Steve Graves, chief information officer, City of Richardson. “We are looking at their Mesh wireless technology as another leading-edge solution than can help us improve our networking capabilities.”
A wireless mesh hotzone links together small transmission access points hung on street lamps or the sides of buildings to form a local network that can deliver mobile communications throughout a city or campus. Because a mesh network uses the same standard as WiFi (802.11b), laptop computers or handheld computing devices set up for WiFi don't require new hardware or software to access the mesh network.
“Nortel’s Wireless Mesh Network solution is one of our most innovative technologies, and it’s gratifying to be deploying this in the backyard of our campus here in Richardson – both in support of the Wildflower! Festival, but also for ongoing coverage for the Galatyn Park Urban Center community,” said Sue Spradley, president, Operations, Nortel.
The new network covers the Galatyn Park Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Light Rail station, the lobby of the Charles W. Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts and Corporate Presentations, the adjacent high-tech fountain and 2-acre public plaza and coverage up to a number of surrounding businesses and office buildings.
“Wireless Mesh is another example of how Nortel is enhancing the human experience by delivering “Office Anywhere” mobility solutions that provide users with consistent, reliable and secure network access regardless of how they are communicating, what device they are using, or where they are located,” said Mark Whitton, general manager, Wireless LAN Solutions, Nortel. “People want full mobility – to be connected anywhere, at any time, and Nortel is enabling that through wireless mesh technology that extends wireless LAN coverage to expansive outdoor areas such as parks, municipalities and university campuses.”
Nortel’s Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Mesh technology uses ‘self-aware’ wireless access points. The radio units, once installed (a simple procedure that does not require technology specialists), identify other nearby units and automatically create a ‘mesh’ radio architecture that interconnects and moves networking traffic between each. This is ideally suited to providing coverage across streets, buildings and various terrain where it would be cost-prohibitive to run networking cables. This architecture also provides a much more cost-effective ‘backhaul’ solution, as only one, or a few, of the radio units require leased broadband connections from a service provider.
About Galatyn Park Urban Center
The 27-acre Galatyn Park urban center began in 1999 and the first phase was completed in 2002. The development project was a joint public/private partnership among Galatyn Park Corporation DART, the City of Richardson (www.cor.net**), and Nortel.
The urban center includes: the Charles W. Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts & Corporate Presentations (www.eisemanncenter.com**), the Richardson Renaissance Hotel, a Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Light Rail station, a two-acre public plaza with high-tech fountain and a corporate campus consisting of four Class A Office buildings. An additional 14 acres of land, which is zoned for multi-use residential and retail development, is available in the core area of the Galatyn Park urban center.
Located just north of Campbell Road and North Central Expressway/US75, the Galatyn Park urban center is the location for the City of Richardson's annual Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival (www.wildflowerfestival.com**), an award-winning festival held each spring.
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. Serving both service provider and enterprise customers, Nortel delivers innovative technology solutions encompassing end-to-end broadband, Voice over IP, multimedia services and applications, and wireless broadband designed to help people solve the world’s greatest challenges. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.
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 outcome of regulatory and criminal investigations and civil litigation actions related to Nortel’s restatements and the impact any resulting legal judgments, settlements, penalties and expenses could have on Nortel’s results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and any related potential dilution of Nortel’s common shares; the findings of Nortel’s independent review and implementation of recommended remedial measures; the outcome of the independent review with respect to revenues for specific identified transactions, which review will have a particular emphasis on the underlying conduct that led to the initial recognition of these revenues; the restatement or revisions of Nortel’s previously announced or filed financial results and resulting negative publicity; the existence of material weaknesses in Nortel’s internal control over financial reporting and the conclusion of Nortel’s management and independent auditor that Nortel’s internal control over financial reporting is ineffective, which could continue to impact Nortel’s ability to report its results of operations and financial condition accurately and in a timely manner; the impact of Nortel’s and NNL’s failure to timely file their financial statements and related periodic reports, including breach of its support facility and public debt obligations and Nortel’s inability to access its shelf registration statement filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”); ongoing SEC reviews, which may result in changes to our public filings; the potential delisting or suspension of Nortel’s and NNL’s publicly traded securities; the impact of management changes, including the termination for cause of Nortel’s former CEO, CFO and Controller in April 2004; the sufficiency of Nortel’s restructuring activities, including the work plan announced on August 19, 2004 as updated on September 30, 2004 and December 14, 2004, including the potential for higher actual costs to be incurred in connection with restructuring actions compared to the estimated costs of such actions; cautious or reduced spending by Nortel’s customers; increased consolidation among Nortel’s customers and the loss of customers in certain markets; fluctuations in Nortel’s operating results and general industry, economic and market conditions and growth rates; fluctuations in Nortel’s cash flow, level of outstanding debt and current debt ratings; Nortel’s monitoring of the capital markets for opportunities to improve its capital structure and financial flexibility; Nortel’s ability to recruit and retain qualified employees; the use of cash collateral to support Nortel’s normal course business activities; the dependence on Nortel’s subsidiaries for funding; the impact of Nortel’s defined benefit plans and deferred tax assets on results of operations and Nortel’s cash flow; the adverse resolution of class actions, litigation in the ordinary course of business, intellectual property disputes and similar matters; Nortel’s dependence on new product development and its ability to predict market demand for particular products; Nortel’s ability to 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; barriers to international growth and global economic conditions, particularly in emerging markets and including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of rationalization and consolidation in the telecommunications industry; changes in regulation of the Internet; the impact of the credit risks of Nortel’s customers and the impact of customer financing and commitments; stock market volatility generally and as a result of acceleration of the settlement date or early settlement, which is currently not available, of Nortel’s forward purchase contracts; negative developments associated with Nortel’s supply contracts and contract manufacturing agreements, including as a result of using a sole supplier for a key component of certain Optical Networks solutions; the impact of Nortel’s supply and outsourcing contracts that contain delivery and installation provisions, which, if not met, could result in the payment of substantial penalties or liquidated damages; and the future success of Nortel’s strategic alliances. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see the most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed by Nortel 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.
Contact for Press and Analysts:
Jay Barta
Nortel
972-685-2381
jbarta@nortel.com
Christie Blake
Nortel
978-288-8439
christbl@nortel.com
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