France Telecom, Nortel Solidify Strategic Partnership
Paris, France, November 28 (ots/PRNewswire)
- Orange Business Services Launches 'Business Together' based on Nortel Technology
Orange Business Services, which provides enterprise business solutions and services by the France Telecom Group as of June 1, 2006, has launched a new suite of SIP multimedia services based on Nortel(1) [NYSE/TSX: NT] technology. The new service 'Business Together' will first be available for corporate French customers in November 2006. As a result of a strategic partnership, France Telecom and Nortel have jointly developed these new services to help businesses communicate and collaborate with greater flexibility and efficiency.
'Business Together' from Orange Business Services unifies onto a single interface all the necessary tools for a company to optimize their team working environment. It does this through telephony, collaboration, instant messaging and multimedia communications; all safely accessibly from a computer, an IP Phone or a mobile smartphone. 'Business Together' enables workers to communicate wherever they are, at the office or on the road.
"'Business Together' is a significant breakthrough for how workers can work together instantly whether they are in the office or on the road," said Barbara Dalibard, executive vice president, Orange Business Services. "Our offering is unique to the marketplace and we plan to expand to other countries in 2007. We will continue to work closely with Nortel to help realize its full potential."
The strategic partnership signed in 2004 between France Telecom and Nortel has a common objective to jointly develop and deploy IP multimedia services as the basis for a new generation of seamless services in the business market, and particularly in person-to-person communication and collaborative work. A strong focus has been made on co-development, co-marketing and co-selling of these services.
"Our partnership with France Telecom is powerful proof of Nortel's drive to equip service providers with technology designed to cost-effectively evolve their networks to deliver new and innovative user experiences," said Michel Clement, president of Southern Europe, Nortel. "France Telecom and Nortel have a long history of delivering next-generation solutions and services. Today's announcement further builds upon the strength of that relationship."
Orange's "Business Together" services include Nortel's SIP Multimedia Communication Server 5200 (MCS 5200) which seamlessly integrates voice with video, collaboration, presence and reachability services. This solution leverages SIP to enable service providers to deliver secured network based technologies and enriched communications experiences.
Nortel has been a key supplier to France Telecom Group network for nearly two decades providing solutions in wireless, wireline data and optical DWDM as well as Enterprise Networks.
About Orange Business Services
Orange Business Services represents the business communications solutions and services provided by the France Telecom Group as of June 1, 2006. They were previously sold under the France Telecom, Orange, Equant, Etrali, Almerys, EGT, Expertel Consulting, France Telecom Intelmatique, SETIB and Solicia brands.
The offers include converged voice, data and mobile services as well as IT expertise and managed services, all designed to transform business processes and improve productivity. Orange Business Services is present in 166 countries and territories and serves customers in 220.
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world's most critical information. Our next-generation technologies, for both service providers and enterprises, span access and core networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications, and help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people with information. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.
Certain statements in this press release may contain words such as "could", "expects", "may", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "targets", "envisions", "seeks" and other similar language and are considered forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on Nortel's current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the operating environment, economies and markets in which Nortel operates. These statements are subject to important assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and the actual outcome may be materially different. Nortel has made various assumptions in the preparation of its financial outlook in this press release, including the following company specific assumptions: no further negative impact to Nortel's results of operations, financial condition and liquidity arising from Nortel's restatements of its financial results; Nortel's prices increasing at or above the rate of price increases for similar products in geographic regions in which Nortel sells its products; increase in sales to Nortel's enterprise customers and wireless service provider customers in the Asia Pacific region as a result of Nortel's joint venture with LG Electronics Inc.; anticipated growth in sales to enterprise customers, including the full year impact to Nortel's revenues from its acquisition of PEC Solutions, Inc., (now Nortel Government Solutions Incorporated); improvement in Nortel's product costs due to favorable supplier pricing substantially offset by higher costs associated with initial customer deployments in emerging markets; cost reductions resulting from the completion of Nortel's significant financial restatements and 2004 restructuring plan; a moderate increase in costs over 2005 related to investments in the finance organization and remedial measures related to Nortel's material weaknesses in internal controls; increased employee costs relative to expected cost of living adjustments and employee bonuses offset by a significant reduction in executive recruitment and severance costs incurred in 2005; and the effective execution of Nortel's strategy. Nortel has also made certain macroeconomic and general industry assumptions in the preparation of its financial guidance including: a modest growth rate in the gross domestic product of global economies in the range of 3.9% which is higher than the growth rate in 2005; global service provider capital expenditures in 2006 reflecting mid to high single digit growth as compared to low double digit growth in 2005; a general increase in demand for broadband access, data traffic and wireless infrastructure and services in emerging markets with the rate of growth in developed markets beginning to slow; and a moderate impact as a result of expected industry consolidation among service providers in various geographic regions, particularly in North America and EMEA. The above assumptions, although considered reasonable by Nortel at the date of this press release, may prove to be inaccurate and consequently Nortel's actual results could differ materially from its expectations set out in this press release.
Further, actual results or events could differ materially from those contemplated in forward-looking statements as a result of the following (i) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's restatements and related matters including: Nortel's most recent restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements and related events; the negative impact on Nortel and NNL of their most recent restatement and delay in filing their financial statements and related periodic reports; legal judgments, fines, penalties or settlements, or any substantial regulatory fines or other penalties or sanctions, related to the ongoing regulatory and criminal investigations of Nortel in the U.S. and Canada; any significant pending civil litigation actions not encompassed by Nortel's proposed class action settlement; any substantial cash payment and/or significant dilution of Nortel's existing equity positions resulting from the approval of its proposed class action settlement; any unsuccessful remediation of Nortel's material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting resulting in an inability to report Nortel's results of operations and financial condition accurately and in a timely manner; the time required to implement Nortel's remedial measures; Nortel's inability to access, in its current form, its shelf registration filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Nortel's below investment grade credit rating and any further adverse effect on its credit rating due to Nortel's restatements of its financial statements; any adverse affect on Nortel's business and market price of its publicly traded securities arising from continuing negative publicity related to Nortel's restatements; Nortel's potential inability to attract or retain the personnel necessary to achieve its business objectives; any breach by Nortel of the continued listing requirements of the NYSE or TSX causing the NYSE and/or the TSX to commence suspension or delisting procedures; (ii) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's business including: yearly and quarterly fluctuations of Nortel's operating results; reduced demand and pricing pressures for its products due to global economic conditions, significant competition, competitive pricing practice, cautious capital spending by customers, increased industry consolidation, rapidly changing technologies, evolving industry standards, frequent new product introductions and short product life cycles, and other trends and industry characteristics affecting the telecommunications industry; the sufficiency of recently announced restructuring actions, including the potential for higher actual costs to be incurred in connection with these restructuring actions compared to the estimated costs of such actions and the ability to achieve the targeted cost savings and reductions of Nortel's unfunded pension liability deficit; any material and adverse affects on Nortel's performance if its expectations regarding market demand for particular products prove to be wrong or because of certain barriers in its efforts to expand internationally; any reduction in Nortel's operating results and any related volatility in the market price of its publicly traded securities arising from any decline in its gross margin, or fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; any negative developments associated with Nortel's supply contract and contract manufacturing agreements including as a result of using a sole supplier for key optical networking solutions components, and any defects or errors in Nortel's current or planned products; any negative impact to Nortel of its failure to achieve its business transformation objectives, including completion of the sale of its UMTS access business to Alcatel; additional valuation allowances for all or a portion of its deferred tax assets; Nortel's failure to protect its intellectual property rights, or any adverse judgments or settlements arising out of disputes regarding intellectual property; changes in regulation of the Internet and/or other aspects of the industry; Nortel's failure to successfully operate or integrate its strategic acquisitions, or failure to consummate or succeed with its strategic alliances; any negative effect of Nortel's failure to evolve adequately its financial and managerial control and reporting systems and processes, manage and grow its business, or create an effective risk management strategy; and (iii) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's liquidity, financing arrangements and capital including: the impact of Nortel's most recent restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements; any inability of Nortel to manage cash flow fluctuations to fund working capital requirements or achieve its business objectives in a timely manner or obtain additional sources of funding; high levels of debt, limitations on Nortel capitalizing on business opportunities because of support facility covenants, or on obtaining additional secured debt pursuant to the provisions of indentures governing certain of Nortel's public debt issues and the provisions of its support facility; any increase of restricted cash requirements for Nortel if it is unable to secure alternative support for obligations arising from certain normal course business activities, or any inability of Nortel's subsidiaries to provide it with sufficient funding; any negative effect to Nortel of the need to make larger defined benefit plans contributions in the future or exposure to customer credit risks or inability of customers to fulfill payment obligations under customer financing arrangements; any negative impact on Nortel's ability to make future acquisitions, raise capital, issue debt and retain employees arising from stock price volatility and further declines in the market price of Nortel's publicly traded securities, or the planned share consolidation resulting in a lower total market capitalization or adverse effect on the liquidity of Nortel's common shares. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel's Annual Report on Form10-K/A, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the SEC. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
1) Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks. Use of the terms "partner" and "partnership" does not imply a legal partnership between Nortel and any other party.
www.nortel.com
Contact:
For more information: Isabelle Tadmoury, +33-1-6955-1291,
tadmoury@nortel.com, Jamie Moody, +972-684-7167, moodyjam@nortel.com,
Fabienne Moiteaux, +33-1-4444-9393,
fabienne.moiteaux@orange-ftgroup.com