Nortel Wireless Network to Help Improve Safety and Efficiency for Indian Railways


MUMBAI, India, September 19/ --

- GSM-R Network Contract Largest in India to Date

Indian Railways will use wireless railway communications technology from Nortel(x) (NYSE/TSX: NT) to help improve the safety and efficiency on one of the most important and busiest rail arteries in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.

The Nortel GSM-R network will provide highly sophisticated wireless communications along the 751-km, 90-station line connecting the major Uttar Pradesh industrial and business centers of Ghaziabad and Mugalsarai. The wireless system will be used to connect train conductors, on-board crew, train dispatchers, station personnel and other operations groups, such as those responsible for attaching and separating rail cars at station yards.

This Uttar Pradesh signaling and communications contract is the largest of its type awarded by Indian Railways to date as part of the modernization of its national railway infrastructure. The contract was secured by a regional consortium consisting of Ansaldo Signal, its Asia Pacific subsidiary Union Switch & Signal, MR Trading and Leighton Asia (Southern) Limited. Nortel was selected by Leighton to provide the GSM-R network. This is Nortel's second such contract in India. Nortel was previously chosen as sole provider of a GSM-R solution to Eastern Railway of West Bengal.

"Nortel has established a global leadership position in GSM-R, and a strong position in the Indian telecommunications marketplace, and these were significant factors in our selecting Nortel's GSM-R technology for this important Indian Railways contract," said David Savage, managing director, Leighton Asia (Southern) Limited.

"Our industry-leading GSM-R solution will help Indian Railways improve safety along this strategic rail line as well as contribute to enhancing train operational efficiency," said Graham Richardson, vice president and general manager, GSM, Nortel. "Nortel is committed to providing railway operators around the world with carrier-grade mobile communications networks and innovative solutions that boost railway efficiency, both in transporting passengers and in carrying freight."

"This is a significant win for Nortel and demonstrates our continued commitment to India," said Malur Narayan, vice president, Carrier Networks, India, Nortel. "As India's fourth largest state, Uttar Pradesh is home to
16.4 percent of our 1.03 billion people, and the Ghaziabad-Mugalsarai rail link plays a vital role in the state's social and economic prosperity and wellbeing.

Nortel is a world leader in GSM-R technology and has been selected to deploy GSM-R networks in three continents and ten countries. In Asia, Nortel GSM-R customers include Eastern Railway in India and China's Ministry of Railways, with GSM-R switching centers along passenger lines spanning 20 of China's 31 provinces. Nortel was also chosen for national deployments by the three largest railway operations in Europe - RFF in France, Network Rail in Great Britain and Deutsche Bahn in Germany.
Recently, the Nortel solution was also selected for the initial phase of Africa's first GSM-R project by Algerian Railways operator SNTF.

Nortel has been a pioneer in the GSM-R standards process since 1992, and works with Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer (UIC) and the Europe Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) on standards improvements.
Nortel supplied equipment for the initial Mobile Radio for Railways Networks in Europe (MORANE) trial and was a major contributor to the European Integrated Railway Radio Enhanced Network (EIRENE) GSM-R standard.

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 nortel.com/news.

Source: Nortel

For further information:
Shubhra Chadda
+91-80-6627-8202
shubhra@nortel.com

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