GSM-R Contract for International Railway Corridor IV
VIENNA, AUSTRIA--(Marketwire - July 13, 2009) - Czech Railways has
selected Nortel(1) (OTCBB: NRTLQ) GSM-R technology to provide
wireless communications to the 207 km Czech section of the
International Railway Corridor IV between Austria and Poland. Nortel
partner Kapsch CarrierCom will supply and deploy the network. The
project began in June 2009 and is scheduled for completion by end of
2009.
The new GSM-R network extension will be installed on the corridor
line connecting Austria to Poland from Breclav to Prerov in the Czech
Republic to Petrovice u Karvine on the Polish border.
This latest GSM-R contract follows announcements from 2007 awarding
Kapsch CarrierCom and Nortel the Czech Railways GSM-R technology
contracts for railway lines from the Czech Republic through Slovakia
and Hungary to destinations in Greece, Turkey and Romania.
"Kapsch was traditionally an expert in the analog sector and today,
thanks to the quality of our work and our ongoing relationship with
Nortel, we have a leading position in GSM-R, the next generation
digital wireless train communication system," explains Thomas
Schoepf, Kapsch CarrierCom Board of Directors. "We are pleased with
the success of our joint GSM-R projects in the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Austria and we also believe that we have good
opportunities to secure upcoming projects in other South-Eastern
European countries."
"Railway technology is developing at a fast pace. Higher train speeds
and more demanding security regulations make it necessary to
implement reliable and trusted new communication systems across
railway networks," adds Cyrill Busslinger, country manager Austria,
Nortel. "GSM-R is an important component of these new communication
systems and Nortel leads technology development in the GSM-R sector.
Nortel's proven GSM-R technology and Kapsch CarrierCom's longstanding
expertise in implementing GSM-R networks, provide a strong foundation
for the modernization of the Czech Railway network. The win of this
project also shows the continued commitment of our clients to Nortel
and its GSM-R solutions."
Nortel's GSM-R solution enables Czech Railways to improve safety,
reduce operational costs and increase average train speeds, which in
turn will cut travel times. Nortel's technology will also help
increase network interoperability and support new voice applications
running over the GSM-R network such as railway emergency and group
conference calls. These features are of key importance for track to
train communications along the railway corridor.
The solution for the Czech Railways corridor IV includes Nortel Base
Transceiver Station (BTS) 9000 and 6000 products, Nortel's Base
Station Controller (BSC) 3000 and Nortel Trans Coding Unit (TCU)
3000. The new contract includes an extension to the Czech Railway's
switching subsystem and an upgrade to Nortel's intelligent network
and GPRS packet core solution. Three additional repeater stations
will be created to ensure network coverage in locations that would
otherwise be difficult to reach. The Kapsch CarrierCom Railway
Provisioning Manager is used for subscriber and configuration
management of the network and provides user and administration tools
with a web-based graphical user interface. This agreement will enable
Czech Railways to extend the benefits of GSM-R communications to this
strategic international corridor.
GSM-R helps increase the efficiency and safety of the railway by
supporting reliable and secure communications among railway
operational staff, including drivers, dispatchers, train engineers
and station controllers. GSM-R is part of the new European Rail
Traffic Management System (ERTMS) standard and carries the signaling
information directly to the train driver, enables faster train speeds
and increases traffic density while maintaining a high level of
safety. GSM-R is specified for train speeds up to 500 km/h, so it is
ideally suited for the planned speed increases in conventional rail
networks as well as for new high-speed routes.
Nortel has more than 15 years experience with GSM-R mobile
communications technology and is currently providing GSM-R on three
continents. With a market share close to 60 percent of the 117,500 Km
of rail tracks installed using the GSM-R system, Nortel is the number
one GSM-R provider globally. Nortel has been awarded national GSM-R
contracts in Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany,
Lithuania, and the UK as well as large GSM-R deployments in Algeria,
China, Italy, India, Slovakia, Spain and in Turkey.
About Kapsch CarrierCom
Kapsch CarrierCom is one of European leaders in telecommunication
solutions for fixed and mobile network operators. Kapsch CarrierCom
covers all fields: from analysis, consulting, design, product
development, integration, installation and training to maintenance
and operation of complete networks.
For more information please visit www.kapsch.net(2)
About Nortel
Nortel delivers communications capabilities that make the promise of
Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation
technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks,
support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel's
technologies are designed to help eliminate today's barriers to
efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and
connecting people to the information they need, when they need it.
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
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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 from those
contemplated in forward-looking statements. For additional
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and other securities filings with the SEC. Unless otherwise required
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whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
(1)Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel
Networks.
(2)This is a 3rd party link as described in our Web linking
practices.
Use of the terms "partner" and "partnership" does not imply a legal
partnership between Nortel and any other party.
Contacts:
Nortel
Sabine Werb
+49 (0)89-38 01 79-12
sabine.werb@nortel.com
Nortel
Greta Brown
+44 1628432968
gretab@nortel.com
www.nortel.com
Kapsch CarrierCom
Hans-Georg Mayer
+43 (0)50 811 3664
hans-georg.mayer@kapsch.net
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