Nortel guns for SMB, e-gov segments in India

Canada-based telecom solutions provider Nortel Networks Corp
is focusing on small and medium businesses (SMB), e-government activities and
contact centers for further growth in India.

Phil Edholm, Chief Technology Officer and VP, Strategy and
Architecture, Enterprise Solutions and Packet Networks, said the recent signing
of a five-year managed services agreement with Bharti Televentures is an
indication of his company's increased focus on India. He was speaking to
CyberMedia News on the sidelines of Nortel's Executive Partner Forum '06 at
Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of the Malaysian state, Sabah - "the land
below the winds."

To a query on the areas of focus for Nortel in India, Edholm
said that the company would target SMBs and call centers.

SMBs in India are expected to spend $7.7 billion in 2006 to
beef up their infotech infrastructure and solutions, up 26 percent from last
year, according to a recent study conducted by the New York-based AMI-Partners.
Nortel has plans to become a mainstream player in the SMB segments (high-end and
mid-range) in India by this year-end. It is looking at SMBs in tier-two and
three cities and beyond.

This telecom firm is currently working on making business
simple for its partners and customers. "Partners and customers are looking
at Nortel to use the complex networks in a simpler way," said Edholm, who
had in July 2004 introduced the "Edholm Law of Bandwidth." His law
observes that wired, wireless WAN and nomadic bandwidths increase over time, yet
retain a constant relationship. The more and plentiful economic bandwidth
becomes, the more applications naturally migrate from the desktop to mobile
campus workers, teleworkers and road warriors.

Rick Seeto, President and GM of Nortel's Enterprise
Networks in Asia Pacific, also stressed on the company's focus on the SMB
space. "We have plans to target products in markets where we didn't have
quite a presence." He was also positive about the firm's prospects with
contact centers. "We will be leveraging our experience in IVR (interactive
voice response) to drive into the contact center market," Seeto added.

According to Ravi Chauhan, VP, Nortel India, the company
would also work with the Indian defense to upgrade the latter's communication
systems. "The need for state-of-the-art communication systems was felt
globally after the Gulf War, and in India, post-Operation Parakram. The Defense
sector had two options — go for specific communication systems, which could be
expensive, or go for an easily available gadget and ruggedize it," he said
terming Nortel as a trusted advisor on how to build trusted, resilient networks.

Chauhan also said that Nortel is likely to open its first
Network Operations Centre (NOC) in New Delhi in May this year. "The NOC can
plug into customers' networks, watch and take care of the networks," he
explained.

Nortel India is in talks with various players in the
e-governance space in the country to promote its products, especially the LG-Nortel
series of hybrid videophones. Nortel will launch a clutch of products —
including these phones - from August 2006 onwards. LG-Nortel Co Ltd is a 49:51
joint venture between LG Electronics Inc and Nortel Networks established in
November, 2005. JD An, head of International Enterprise Sales Division of LG-Nortel
said the JV's vision is "to be number one in Korean telecom market share
by the end of 2006 and sustain the leadership position."

The company does not have plans to enable language technology
in India, which would further the cause of e-governance.

MAJNU BABU, KOTA KINABALU

(CyberMedia News)

(Nortel hosted the author in Malaysia)