Nortel to Resell GENBAND Gear

Nortel Networks today announced plans to resell, distribute and support GENBAND’s G6 and G2 media gateways. The move allows Nortel to help service providers using the widely deployed, but no longer supported, legacy DCO and EWSD switches migrate to VoIP.

GENBAND last year bought Siemens Networks LLC’s DCO business as well as open interfaces to both the DCO and EWSD installed base. At the time that deal was announced, GENBAND said there were about 14 million lines installed on DCO and EWSD switches in North America.

Rob Schieble, a marketing head for carrier networks VoIP at Nortel, said service providers using the DCO (commonly used in rural deployments) and EWSD (for larger installations) equipment can now use the Nortel/GENBAND solution to move to IP at their core without replacing all the peripherals.

The Nortel part of that solution includes the CS 2000 and CS 1500 softswitches, with the former being for larger and the latter being for smaller deployments. The GENBAND contribution includes the G6 Universal Media Gateway and G2 Compact Media Gateway, with the former being for larger and the latter being for smaller deployments.

For GENBAND, the relationship with Nortel, which has been ranked by Dell’Oro Group as the worldwide leader in carrier VoIP for five years running, is yet another feather in its cap. GENBAND has been growing like crazy both organically and through acquisitions, and is expected to go public in the not-too-distant future.

“This is really exciting for us as we expand beyond our current partnerships. Nortel as a channel partner is tremendous for us,” said Jody Bennett, vice president of marketing for GENBAND, which also has a channel relationship with tier one vendor Alcatel-Lucent relating to GPON/BPON and wireless deployments.

Support for GENBAND media gateways is expected to be available in North America in the fourth quarter of 2007 for the CS 1500 and in 2008 for the CS 2000 IP Multimedia Softswitch.

GENBAND www.genband.com
Nortel Networks www.nortel.com

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