One of Canada's greatest corporate success stories of the 20th century is Nortel Networks(NT). The giant telecommunications equipment manufacturer dominates the market for high speed fiber optic technology, equipment that takes full advantage of the speed and capacity of fiber optic cables.

Nortel is the number one supplier of optical equipment to companies with their finger on the pulse of next generation data transmission such as Qwest, Level 3 and Williams. Revenue from that division of the business alone is growing by more than 50% a year.

NT also produces a comprehensive portfolio of products and services designed to address the needs of any networking environment, from the small office or home office user to the largest enterprise network. Nortel is a global corporation with offices and facilities in Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Caribbean and Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and the United States.

Nortel Networks has unquestionably surpassed competitor Lucent Technologies in the high speed transmission area, with LU still dominating the slower fiber optic lines used by most traditional telephone companies. But, those same traditional telephone lines are under attack from the explosive increase in data transmission essential to the growth of the digital age. Data exchange is now doubling every quarter. Nortel, with it's main focus being high speed and increased capacity, is set to reap the benefits of their foresight and effort.

The 30 year company veteran, engineer, and CEO, John Roth declared "The Internet today is unreliable and slow. What we are setting out to do is build the high performance Internet of the future." Mr. Roth began implementing this plan with key strategic aquisitions like the $9 billion procurement of Bay Networks in 1998 to enhance Nortel's position in data networking equipment. And, more recently, the acquisition of Qtera, a privately held Boca Raton, Florida based maker of optical networking equipment that helps fiber optic networks run faster, better and cheaper.

On Friday, December 17, Nortel continued it's expansion into the high speed digital data transmission market with the announcement of a contract award from Log On America to provide next generation communications solutions to consumers and businesses throughout the Northeast. "Nortel Networks leads the industry in providing easily deployable DSL solutions that allow service providers, like Log On America, to price high speed Internet and telecommunications services affordably," said Steven Schilling, President, Access Networks, a division of Nortel Networks. "By working with leading companies, like Log On America, we will achieve our long term goal to deliver DSL to the mass market much more quickly." As part of the agreement, Log On America will purchase approximately $47 million(US) in equipment and services. Nortel Networks will be providing $45(US) million in senior secured debt. Log On America is a rapidly growing Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) providing integrated communications and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) services in the North East.

To customers around the world Nortel Networks delivers unified networks solutions, spanning mission critical telephony and IP- optimized networks. Customers include public and private enterprises and institutions, Internet service providers, local, long distance, cellular and PCS communications companies, cable television carriers, and utilities. As we look forward for companies who are poised to take full advantage of the Internet and the high speed data transmission market, Nortel Networks is certainly one of the industry leaders.