Nortel Wins Carrier VoIP Contracts, Still No. 1

Nortel Networks might be getting ready to piecemeal itself off (or maybe not – stay tuned), but its operating units are still winning deals. The latest is in the carrier VoIP space, where Nortel enjoys a No.1 market share. Four rural telcos have signed on to use the vendor’s communications server.

Hancock Telephone, ArkWest Communications, Venture Communications Cooperative and Dakota Central Telecommunications are new customers, bringing the number of telcos Nortel supports on the Communication Server 1500 to more than 135.

The IP multimedia softswitch gives regional subscribers and SMBs a path to offering traditional voice services, as well as multimedia applications like IPTV, Internet content and more.

“With our recently announced release of the CS 1500, we've added new revenue-generating applications like unified messaging, single number service, subscriber Web portal and on-demand conferencing,” said Samih Elhage, president for carrier VoIP and applications at Nortel. “These new applications help increase customer satisfaction and retention while providing regional operators with a VoIP platform that allows them to reap the maintenance and cost benefits of a converged network."

The companies are all using the switch for different purposes. Hancock Telephone of Hancock, N.Y., wants to drive new voice revenue from both residential and SMB subscribers with advanced VoIP applications like single number service and unified messaging. Arkwest, a pioneer service provider in the state of Arkansas since 1939, is using it to converge telephony and IPTV services. Venture is adding services like single-number service, IPTV, click-to-call, PC access to voice messages and call logs. And Dakota Central is using it to provide click-to-call, unified messaging and end-user Web portals.

The CS 1500 allows a phased migration path to VoIP allowing many carriers to reuse existing equipment, which can help reduce capital investment by up to 50 percent, Nortel said.

Why are these telcos signing on with a bankrupt, likely to be spun off company? For one, Nortel is certainly entrenched in the market: It has shipped more than 100 million carrier IP voice and multimedia ports to more than 340 carriers globally. It also provides VoIP solutions to two-thirds of IDC's worldwide listing of top 20 carriers by revenue, it said.

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