Nortel Opens R&D Centre

BANGALORE -- Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] is establishing a Nortel Technology Excellence Center (NTEC) in Bangalore, India, focused on new product design, development and testing to deliver greater cost benefits to customers worldwide.

Located in Bangalore’s IBC Knowledge Park, Nortel’s new 35,000 square foot facility is expected to employ more than 100 highly skilled engineers by the end of 2006. Activities at the center will build on Nortel's existing capabilities in advanced routers, Ethernet switching, security and VoIP technologies. The NTEC will be led by K.C. Venugopal, founding member of Tasman Networks, a leading router company which was acquired by Nortel in February 2006. The center will initially house Tasman’s original secure router R&D team, already based in Bangalore.

“India has long been a technology hub for Nortel, providing a major opportunity for local technology and innovation to be deployed in global markets,” said Ravi Chauhan, managing director, India, Nortel. “This new R&D facility will complement our current enterprise infrastructure portfolio by incorporating feedback from customers to enhance our seamless, feature-rich networks that support critical real-time applications, including voice, video and streaming multimedia.”

“This is a tremendous opportunity to strengthen Nortel’s base in Indiaand to differentiate our enterprise portfolio to gain competitive advantage,” said Venugopal. “We believe the product innovation generated by our R&D team will create significant new customer value for Nortel in Indiaand around the world.”

Nortel Networks Ltd.