ORLANDO, Fla. -- WilTel Communications and Nortel Networks* (NYSE: NT; Toronto) today announced a unique storage extension solution for enterprise customers. WilTel collaborated with Nortel Networks and EMC Corporation to develop StorageXtend(SM), a solution that enables enterprise customers to implement network-based business continuity, disaster recovery, server and storage consolidation. StorageXtend removes cost-prohibitive networking barriers by enabling businesses to select scalable, right-sized bandwidth increments.

Offered by WilTel in more than 100 cities throughout the United States and featuring an end-to-end service-level agreement (SLA), StorageXtend is a fully managed solution, bundling Nortel Networks Optical Metro 3500 SONET platform with WilTel Protected Private Line service and implementing virtual concatenation. StorageXtend is interoperable with the market leading EMC Symmetrix DMX and EMC CLARiiON CX families of networked storage systems and leading EMC SRDF® (Symmetrix Remote Data Facility) and EMC MirrorView(TM) software for remote data replication.

"Enterprise customers are increasingly looking to WilTel for effective ways to implement business continuity and disaster recovery solutions," said Tony Tomae, senior vice president of marketing for WilTel. "StorageXtend offers the benefits of a secure, end-to-end protected private line connectivity service with enhanced flexibility through incremental bandwidth options. Additionally, because it is fully managed, customers are not required to deploy any capital."

WilTel's StorageXtend is the industry's first storage over SONET service to offer flexible and scalable bandwidth in 50 Mbps increments, providing enterprise customers with a cost-effective alternative to traditional optical SONET services, typically only available in 150, 600 or 2,500 Mbps increments. In addition, StorageXtend provides further cost efficiencies by enabling enterprises to converge their LAN and SAN application traffic over the same SONET access facility with full application isolation.

WilTelCommunications Group Inc.

Nortel Networks Ltd.

EMC Corp.