TORONTO -- Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT)(TSX:NT) today announced that 11 companies joined its LINKS technology 'partner' community in the fourth quarter of 2002 in the drive to offer innovative technologies that complement and extend Nortel Networks product portfolio to deliver additional value to enterprises and service providers worldwide.The new members are AePONA, Bridgewater Systems, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Cyantel, CPlane, HP, Mobility Networks, Nexus, Nice Systems, Telenity and TTI Telecom."Nortel Networks is focused on fostering a community of innovation, leveraging technology developed within the company and complementing it with innovation from other companies to deliver a complete, integrated solution which can be easily deployed by our customers," said Al Safarikas, vice president, marketing, Nortel Networks.AePONA offers a Parlay/Open Service Access (OSA) gateway to enable and control application access via consistent interfaces for programming applications on a wireless operator's network. Nortel Networks uses the gateway to allow its mobile location center customers to securely deliver location information for location-based service offerings. Bridgewater Systems provides an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) and mediation solution to link Nortel Networks CDMA infrastructure and 802.11 wireless LAN (WLAN) platforms and enable Nortel Networks customers to offer end users one account and one consolidated bill for both CDMA and WLAN data services. By teaming with Nortel Networks, TELECOM MEDIA NETWORKS, a global industry practice of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, can provide service provider customers with integrated operational support system (OSS) solutions, combining industry leading technologies and consulting services to solve complex business problems. Cyantel's E-Z-Manage suite helps Nortel Networks wireless customers offer business-to-business location-based services to corporate and business customers. They also help Nortel Networks Mobile Location Center customers to address the consumer market with their E-Z-Track and E-Z-Mall products. CPlane, Inc. provides service control software products to provision and deliver profitable IP services. CPlane's Traffic Optimizer enables Nortel Networks Optical Ethernet customers to build, maintain, and optimally engineer their MPLS networks for maximum service performance and value. HP Consulting and Integration Services - combined with HP's Integrated Service Management solution, wireless client devices, infrastructure elements, and mobile applications suite - offers Nortel Networks customers the ability to work with a single global integrator to build comprehensive solutions. HP can help Nortel Networks customers drive a reduction in the cost of bringing new, revenue-generating services to market, and improve time-to-revenue through more rapid service deployment. Mobility Networks end-to-end solution provides carrier-class WiFi public access, addressing critical security, authentication, roaming, handover and network management issues. The flexible solution seamlessly integrates into Nortel Networks GSM, GPRS and UMTS core networks, enabling customers to deliver value-added data services by leveraging their existing business systems. NICE Systems enables Nortel Networks customers to improve their businesses by effectively recording, storing, evaluating, and managing voice communications, call data, desktop screens and video, while enhancing the customer experience and driving increased contact center performance. The newly formed relationship in North America builds on an established relationship in Europe. Nexus Telecom AG's software for performance and service level management complements Nortel Networks Passport Multiservice Switch management solutions in numerous carrier and enterprise deployments worldwide, positioning Nortel Networks customers to maximize the value of their technology investments. Telenity's standards-based Canvas Location Enabling Server provides Nortel Networks wireless customers with highly-scalable location information and multimedia messaging services. Telenity's solution helps Nortel Networks Mobile Location Center customers in the areas of resource tracking and management, locating individual wireless consumers, entertainment and info-commerce. TTI Telecom offers modular, integrated software products and services for OSS and Business Support Systems (BSS) to telecom service providers. TTI Telecom's solutions enable Nortel Networks CDMA customers to improve the quality of existing services, streamline operations, maximize return on investment in network infrastructure and offer new services over complex networks. In addition, MetaSolv Software extends its relationship with Nortel Networks to provide AAA policy services solutions that enable Nortel Networks customers to leverage network investments in wireless deployments to offer integrated or stand alone WLAN services.Nortel Networks Corp.