BT and Nortel Sign New Four Year Global Trading Agreement

TORONTO, ONTARIO, May 18 (MARKET WIRE) --
BT and Nortel(1) (TSX: NT)(OTCBB: NRTLQ) today announced a new four-year
global trading agreement for Nortel's enterprise equipment and services
including its convergence portfolio. This new trading agreement builds on
the success of a 15-year relationship that has provided the UK market
with leading voice applications.

Joel Hackney, president, Enterprise Business, Nortel, said: "Nortel and
BT have always worked closely to provide the best solutions to our
customers. This new agreement will not only strengthen our relationship,
it also demonstrates the level of service we can offer. Together, Nortel
and BT provide an attractive value proposition that comes from years of
experience in all areas of the telecommunications industry. Not only do
we understand the technology that businesses need to succeed, we also
share a vision of delivering communications solutions that simplify and
enhance the customer experience." Nortel and BT have a long history of
delivering innovative, integrated solutions for enterprises. The
agreement will provide customers with solutions that give them a
competitive edge. With technology and skills derived from extensive
carrier and enterprise solution portfolios, Nortel and BT can address
customers' needs whether it be voice, contact centres, routing, LANs or
VPNs.

Lewis Lyell, managing director, convergence business sales, BT Global
Services, said: "This new deal is very good news for our customers. It
demonstrates our ability to deliver value to customers even in the
toughest market conditions."

About BT

BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions
and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include
the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and
international telecommunications services to our customers for use at
home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and
services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists
principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT
Retail and BT Wholesale. In the year ended 31 March 2009, BT Group's
revenue was pound sterling 21,390 million.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT
Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT
Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt(2) Enquiries about this
news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom on its 24-hour
number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK dial + 44 20 7356 5369. All
news releases can be accessed at our web site:
http://www.btplc.com/News(2)

About Nortel (in Administration)

Nortel was placed into Administration on 14 January 2009 and it continues
to trade on a business-as-usual basis while it reviews its options to
recover or restructure. Nortel has announced it is confident that the
products and services it supplies will continue to be supported without
impacting customers for the foreseeable future. Ernst & Young are the
joint administrators for Nortel.

Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities
that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our
customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider
and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical
applications. Nortel's technologies are designed to help eliminate
today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying
networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they
need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the
world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com.
For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.

Additional information about Nortel

Market research firm Dell'Oro ranks Nortel as the worldwide leader in the
enterprise voice market and worldwide PBX line shipments over the 12
months 3Q07-2Q08. Gartner positioned Nortel in the Leaders' quadrant of
the 2008 Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, the 2008 Magic
Quadrant for Corporate Telephony and the 2008 Magic Quadrant for Contact
Center Infrastructure, Worldwide.

Nortel also recently launched the Business Communication Manager 450
(BCM450) to enable unified communications. In addition to receiving a
'five-out-of-five' rating in Gartner's Critical capabilities for Unified
Communications report, the BCM 450 has become one of Nortel's fastest
selling products globally, with over one-thousand shipments made in the
first three months.

Certain statements in this press release may contain words such as
"could", "expects", "may", "anticipates", "believes", "intends",
"estimates", "targets", "envisions", "seeks" and other similar language
and are considered forward-looking statements or information under
applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on Nortel's
current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the
operating environment, economies and markets in which Nortel operates.
These statements are subject to important assumptions, risks and
uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and the actual outcome may
be materially different from those contemplated in forward-looking
statements. For additional information with respect to certain of these
and other factors, see Nortel's Annual Report on Form10-K, Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the SEC. Unless
otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel disclaims any
intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.

(1)Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel
Networks.

(2)This is a 3rd party link as described in our Web linking practices.

Use of the terms "partner" and "partnership" does not imply a legal
partnership between Nortel and any other party.

Contacts:
Nortel
Jody Prescott
+44 1628 434190
jodyp@nortel.com
www.nortel.com

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