Dominican Republic : Verizon Dominicana, the principal telecom service provider in the Dominican Republic, has completed an expansion of its nationwide third generation (3G) wireless network with wireless solutions from Nortel. The expanded network will meet growing demand for advanced data services through such Nortel solutions as CDMA2000 1X and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology.

Nortel completed the expansion through a seamless integration of the new solutions with the rest of Verizon Dominicana's network. The network transition to increase coverage and availability of 3G services was completely transparent to end-users. As part of the project, Nortel has deployed a complete CDMA 1X solution for Verizon Dominicana, including radio base stations, base station controllers, switching platforms and other related equipment to significantly boost capacity for wireless data services.

This deployment also positions Verizon Dominicana to migrate its network to a packet-based switching platform using Nortel's CDMA Packet MSC (mobile switching center) solution. This solution is designed to reduce operating costs and increase network capacity while at the same time supporting delivery of feature-rich voice and data services. "Verizon Dominicana prides itself on always offering its customers the most advanced communications services and we chose Nortel's proven wireless solutions to help us achieve our objective," said Isaac Madera, director, Network Planning, Verizon Dominicana.

"An upgraded 3G network gives us the additional capacity to improve coverage and delivery of 3G data services across our network, while also facilitating the evolution to EV-DO to bring even more sophisticated broadband services to our customers."

Verizon Dominicana is also running trials of Nortel's EV-DO solution in selected regional areas in the Dominican Republic.

This solution is designed to enable greatly enhanced levels of performance for advanced applications like high-speed mobile broadband Internet access, virtual office, real-time video and other data and multimedia services. EV-DO is a broadband radio technology that can support transmission speeds higher than those currently available using ADSL and cable modems. Nortel has been working with Verizon Dominicana for over 10 years to deploy advanced networks, including Voice over IP (Internet Protocol), wireless and optical infrastructures, throughout the Dominican Republic. Most recently, Nortel deployed a complete metro optical solution for Verizon Dominicana's wireline network, based on Nortel Optical Cross-Connect DX and Optical Metro 3500, to consolidate network traffic, provide improved flexibility and reduce operating expenses.

"Nortel has more than 35 years of experience in deploying the same advanced communication solutions in the Caribbean as we do with the largest carriers around the world to help regional operators roll out leading-edge services to their customers on networks that are secure, reliable and cost-effective," said Kevin Taylor, vice president, Wireless Carrier Networks, Caribbean and Latin America, Nortel. "This project reaffirms our long-standing relationship with Verizon Dominicana and our commitment to continue working with them to provide highly advanced networks that will help enhance the communications experience of their customers in the Dominican Republic."

Nortel is currently deploying EV-DO, with leading customers around the world, including Verizon Wireless in the United States, Vesper in Brazil, Smartcom in Chile, Pelephone in Israel, Asia Pacific Broadband in Taiwan, Telstra in Australia and Eurotel in the Czech Republic. With its CDMA equipment designed to support EV-DO through modular upgrades to existing hardware, Nortel re-uses existing base station equipment to reduce or eliminate the need for costly hardware replacements while driving reduced operating costs. Nortel has designed, deployed and launched more than 300 wireless networks in more than 70 countries around the world. Nortel was the first industry supplier to have wireless networks operating in all advanced radio technologies (GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA2000 1X and EV-DO, UMTS and WLAN), and is the only end-to-end supplier of all new-generation wireless solutions.