PARIS -- BLUE COUNTRY networks, acarrier's carrier, has selected Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT)(TSE:NT.) asthe exclusive supplier for the first festoon telecommunicationsnetwork to be deployed in the Mediterranean Sea under an initialagreement estimated to be worth US$15 million (20 million Euro).Festoon networks are submarine communications systems that have nosubmerged active equipment such as repeaters. Scheduled to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2002,this network will initially connect southern France (Marseille,Toulon, Monaco) to Corsica (Calvi, Ajaccio, Bonifacio, Solenzara,Bastia) with the west coast of Italy and inland to Rome. Additionalloops are planned for deployment beginning in 2002 to link Spain,Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and other parts of France and Italy. BLUECOUNTRY networks envisions a high-capacity optical infrastructurelinking all major Mediterranean cities by 2005. "The business potential for a carrier in the Mediterranean issubstantial, especially with the prospect of developing exchangesbetween Mediterranean countries," said Philippe Vertuaux, president,BLUE COUNTRY networks. "High capacity telecommunicationsinfrastructure is almost non-existent, as demonstrated by ourpre-sales figures from various French and Italian carriers. We intendto be the first Mediterranean optical supplier and we chose NortelNetworks for its optical know-how and its ability to rapidly deploysuch an infrastructure."

Nortel Networks Corp.