SOUTH DAKOTA –- Roberts County Telephone, the local service provider for the rural community of New Effington, South Dakota is playing a part in the transformation of the rural service provider business through their recent work with Nortel* [NYSE/TSX: NT] to achieve listing of the Nortel Communication Server 1500 VoIP softswitch in the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) List of Materials. This government grant program opens up financial assistance opportunities for hundreds of U.S. rural operators to upgrade their networks to support high-quality communications services like IPTV and VoIP.

Using Nortel’s CS 1500 VoIP softswitch, and acting as Nortel’s official trial site for the grant program, Roberts County Telephone and Nortel completed the necessary trials to get the CS 1500 included in the RUS List of Materials. This means that other rural American telephone companies like Roberts County Telephone can apply for government grants to help purchase Nortel’s CS 1500 to upgrade legacy equipment to support IP networks. The grant program, designed to bring advanced communications like IPTV and VoIP services to rural areas, is funded by The Technical Standards Committee “A” (Telecommunications) of RUS, a division of the U.S Department of Agriculture. The grants cover expenditures such as network enhancements, equipment and construction financing and assistance obtaining advanced networking equipment.

“Getting products RUS listed is no easy task, requiring extensive documentation, technical presentations and more than six months of service provider trials to ensure the product meets the extensive criteria for inclusion in the RUS List of Materials,” said Alf Decardenas, general manager, Carrier Multimedia Networks, Nortel. “Rural service providers need a solution that allows them to evolve their existing network to VoIP to meet growing customer demand for converged and multimedia services. With the help of Robert’s County Telephone, Nortel has achieved RUS listing of their market-leading VoIP technology that will help rural service providers take advantage of the benefits of IP-based communications while keeping their operational costs down.”

Nortel Networks Ltd.