China Telecom selects Nortel Networks to provide optical backbones for Hubei Province

Nortel Networks (NYSE/TSE: NT) has been selected to supply new, high-speed optical transmission backbone networks for Hubei Telecom, China Telecom's subsidiary in Hubei province. Nortel Networks will provide Hubei Telecom with two backbone networks. One is expected to serve the "Optical Valley" of China, including the capital city of Wuhan and the province's rural areas, beginning in November. The other is expected to span the province to serve 13 cities and countryside towns across 1,100 kilometers beginning in January 2002.

With nearly 30 years of operating experience in Greater China, Nortel Networks has won contracts estimated to be worth more than $1.2 billion since the start of 2001 from customers such as China Telecom. Nortel Networks is also investing in China to deliver key next generation networking solutions, and its comprehensive R&D facilities in Beijing will develop new technologies.

Both new Hubei Telecom optical backbone networks will be based on Nortel Networks OPTera Long Haul 1600 Optical Line System, featuring 10 gigabits-per-second DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) line technology and using global standards such as SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy).

DWDM technology splits light into as many as 160 channels to maximize capacity on each optical fiber, allowing more efficient transmission of data across the Internet backbone. DWDM facilitates multi-terabit systems, essential to meeting tomorrow's network demands, using high-bandwidth optical components and high-bandwidth opto-electronic circuits.

Nortel Networks OPTera Long Haul 1600 Optical Line System offers reliability and scalability to support new, data-intensive Internet applications from terrestrial and wireless carriers, as well as Internet Service Providers.

Hubei Province will join other China Telecom provincial subsidiaries in deploying 10-gigabit optical solutions from Nortel Networks. To date, Nortel Networks has won more than 30 10-gigabit optical contracts in China.

About Nortel Networks:

Nortel Networks provides networking and communications solutions and infrastructure for service providers and corporations. For more information, visit www.nortelnetworks.com.