STOCKHOLM -- Nortel(1) (TSX: NT)(NYSE: NT) optical technology is helping Banverket ICT, one of Sweden's largest suppliers of network services, to extend flexible broadband network services into underserved rural areas and to new customers across Sweden. Banverket ICT is a subsidiary of Banverket, the authority responsible for Sweden's railways which operates a transport and communications network that runs alongside the country's 12,000 km rail network.

The Nortel solution enables Banverket ICT to deliver a range of cost-effective, next-generation transport services including transparent managed wavelength, high-speed data services, digital TV and traditional SDH services to its service provider clients.

The Banverket network enhancement project involves upgrading several hundred sites in the company's network across Sweden. The project began in mid 2007 and will be deployed in phases according to customer demands.

Nortel is supplying wavelength equipment, for applications requiring larger amounts of bandwidth, for Banverket ICT access points in Sweden's large city networks such as in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. And, as Sweden is a largely rural country, Banverket ICT is also maximizing use of the fibre network running alongside the railway to create additional network access points for delivering broadband services to underserved regional areas.

"Banverket ICT is striving to satisfy customers' requests for new managed services like high-speed data services by adding greater geographical service coverage and increased capacity," said Thomas Sjostrand manager technical and network strategy, Banverket ICT. "Delivering these cost-effectively requires us to use our existing fiber network assets more effectively and Nortel's solution helps us to do this."

Banverket Telenät