Communications provider 21st Century, Chicago, IL, has selected Nortel, Brampton, ON, Canada, to

Communications provider 21st Century, Chicago, IL, has selected Nortel, Brampton, ON, Canada, to provide the transport backbone and telephony portion of its interactive broadband network in Chicago. Under the terms of a three-year letter of intent, valued at approximately $40 million, Nortel will supply switching, transmission, and access solutions. Included are Nortel`s dms-500 Local/Long Distance Switching System, AccessNode and AccessNode Express platforms, and s/dms Transport Node OC-48 (2.5-Gbit/sec) and OC-12 (622-Mbit/sec) systems. 21st Century plans to offer residential and business subscribers with a bundled package of voice, data, video, and high-speed Internet access services.