Nortel Becomes Strategic Vendor for Liberty Global - One of the World's Largest Cable Operators
Denver (ots/PRNewswire)
- Liberty Global Signs Purchasing Agreement with Nortel Through 2007
Nortel(x) (NYSE/TSX: NT) today announced that Liberty Global, the world's leading international cable operator, has signed a global purchase agreement (GPA) with Nortel to cover purchases through 2007. The GPA gives Liberty Global access to a uniform purchasing process and pricing terms for Nortel's cable VoIP and optical solutions and services.
With the agreement, Nortel is now an approved vendor across Liberty Global's cable subsidiaries - such as UPC Broadband in Europe, J:COM in Japan and VTR in Chile - that serve 15 million customers in 18 countries around the world.
"Nortel's expanded relationship with Liberty Global is another significant proof point to our leadership in the cable market," said Dion Joannou, president, North America, Nortel. "Our VoIP and optical transport solutions are now deployed in more than thirty cable networks around the world."
"We anticipate telephone services utilising Voice over IP technologies to be a tremendous service offering for our customers," said Tony Werner, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Liberty Global. "This purchasing agreement furthers the strong relationship we have with Nortel, and we look forward to having Nortel continue to provide cable solutions that support VoIP and other quality services that we deliver to our customers."
Products included in the global purchase agreement include Communication Server (CS) 2000 and 2000-Compact, Nuera BTX and MG 3000 series media gateways, Multimedia Communication Server 5200, Optical Metro 4000 series, Optical Metro 5000 series, Common Photonic Layer (CPL), Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500, Optical Long Haul 1600, and Optical Cross Connect DX. The agreement also includes services from the Nortel Global Services portfolio.
Recent contracts awarded to Nortel by UPC Broadband will be rolled into the GPA. This includes the deployment of Nortel's CS 2000-based VoIP solutions in UPC's networks in the Netherlands and Austria. UPC also has an installed base of Nortel CPL, OME 6500, OME 6110 and OM 5200 products from a deployment of video and high-speed data transport solutions.
Nortel continues to gain momentum in the cable market with solutions designed to help cable operators drive new revenue opportunities and reduce operating costs. These comprehensive, integrated cable solutions span broadcast and on-demand video transport, voice and multimedia communications, high-speed data services, high-bandwidth and voice services for business customers, and next generation wireless access.
Nortel's cable customers include Cablevision, Cable Onda, Charter Communications, Cogeco, Comcast, Cox Communications, Dacom, Eastlink, Intercable, Jupiter, Kabel BW, Mediacom, NTL, Retecal, Rogers Cable, Shaw Cablesystems, TeleCable, Telenet, Telewest, Time Warner Cable and Unity Media.
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognised 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", "plans", "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 finalisation and approval of its proposed class action settlement, or if such proposed class action settlement is not finalised, 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; 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; 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 capitalisation 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.
Contact:
For further information: Bo Gowan, +972-685-8278, bogowan@nortel.com;
Greta Brown, +44-1628-432968, gretab@nortel.com/