Verizon Wireless Awards Nortel an Expected US$2B Supply Deal

Basking Ridge, New Jersey and Toronto, Canada (ots/PRNewswire) -

- Building Network for Mobile Multimedia and Data Growth

Nortel(1) [NYSE/TSX: NT] and Verizon Wireless, the nation's
leading wireless service provider, have signed an expected five-year,
US$2 billion agreement for Nortel equipment and services that will
contribute to continued improvements and expansion of Verizon
Wireless' network.

The planned Verizon Wireless network expansion comes as business
and consumer adoption of services that utilize broadband networks -
such as the company's V CAST video and music services and
BroadbandAccess high-speed Internet and e-mail offering - are
resonating in the marketplace. With data services accounting for 14
percent of Verizon Wireless' revenue from its nearly 57 million
customers in the third quarter of 2006, Nortel's support will be
instrumental as Verizon Wireless builds upon its lead in network
quality and reach in the U.S.

"The popularity of Internet services like user-generated videos,
online gaming, music and video is driving an explosion in bandwidth
demand," said Richard Lowe, president, Mobility and Converged Core
Networks, Nortel. "Consumers expect more from their mobile devices
than voice communication and text-messaging. Nortel is making it
simple for Verizon Wireless to expand its network to meet this demand
and to competitively drive new services to market that their
customers will enjoy."

"This expansion underscores our focus on investing in innovative
technology and leveraging long-term, strategic relationships with
leaders like Nortel to continually enhance our subscribers' mobile
communication experience," said Ed Salas, network planning vice
president, Verizon Wireless. "This means true mobility for our
customers, allowing them to take their PC experience with them
wherever they go and enjoy things like V CAST Music, V CAST video,
great mobile games and high-speed file transfers on the nation's best
wireless network."

Under this agreement, Verizon Wireless plans to deploy additional
CDMA2000 radio base stations, switching, IP platforms, optical
networking solutions and related equipment with the help of
professional services from Nortel. In addition, this agreement builds
on the contract announced in July 2006, whereby Nortel was selected
to supply Verizon Wireless with CDMA 1xEV-DO Revision A technology.
The ability for CDMA networks to provide significant performance
enhancements through simple upgrades is a key advantage of the
underlying technology.

"This contract confirms Nortel's leadership in supplying
innovative CDMA mobile broadband technologies and driving advanced
communication services," added Lowe. "It's our long term partners
that know us best, so we're particularly proud when an industry
leader like Verizon Wireless asks us to be part of their team for
another five years."

This new agreement also presents an opportunity for Verizon
Wireless and Nortel to further develop and deploy next-generation
IMS-based applications and services. In addition, Nortel, Verizon
Wireless and other industry suppliers will continue to work together
to enhance industry standards and define an IMS architecture that
lays a foundation for the efficient roll-out of advanced services.

Nortel has been a key supplier to Verizon Wireless' nationwide
network for more than a decade. Nortel has been a leader in CDMA
since 1995 and has launched more CDMA networks than any other vendor,
according to the CDMA Development Group.

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 www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit
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 approval of its proposed
class action settlement; 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-Lucent; 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 support 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 support facility; 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 the 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
Form10-K/A, Quarterly Reports 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.

1) Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of
Nortel Networks. Use of the terms "partner" and "partnership" does
not imply a legal partnership between Nortel and any other party.

www.nortel.com

www.verizonwireless.com

ots Originaltext: Nortel Networks
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Contact:
Jamie Moody, +1-972-684-7167, moodyjam@nortel.com, Karen Monaghan,
+1-613-763-1133, kmonagha@nortel.com, Jeffrey Nelson,
+1-908-559-7519, jeffrey.nelson@verizonwireless.com


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