Cingular Awards 3 Year Contract to Nortel for 3GPP Release 4

Cingular Wireless awarded a three-year contract with Nortel to provide wireless network services and equipment. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Specifically, Nortel will deploy its 2G/3G 3GPP Release 4 compliant MSC (Mobile Switching Center) Server and Media Gateway products to support Cingular's UMTS/HSDPA network deployment. These products are compliant with 3GPP Bearer Independent Core Network standards. Nortel's R4 technology will help provide a significant increase in call handling capacity - up to 300% according to Nortel estimates.



Nortel has already deployed more than two million ports of its MSC solution to support Cingular's national 2G/GSM network in major markets across the United States. According to Nortel estimates, this is believed to be the industry's largest in-service R4 core network installation to date. Nortel has been a supplier of wireless infrastructure equipment in the Cingular Wireless network since 1995. http://www.nortel.com