Introducing the Greater China Region
From Beijing to Hong Kong to Taipei, the Greater China Region employees of Nortel Networks are much like Nortel Networks employees everywhere.

They understand our mission, vision and core values as well as our branding strategy, and are striving every day to make our customers successful.

Encompassing more than 9 million square kilometers, this region is home to employees who speak Mandarin Chinese, English, Taiwanese and a number of other Chinese dialects. The diversity of languages and cultures in the Greater China Region makes its market challenging and opportunities truly unique.

For Nortel Networks, the region includes three primary geographic areas: the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Taiwan.

R&D commitment in PRC strengthened
Nortel Networks is demonstrating its commitment to the Greater China market with a plan to invest US$200 million over three years to strengthen our R&D capabilities. By the end of 2003, we expect to double our number of R&D employees year-over-year. We also plan to construct a new campus in Beijing's Chao Yang District, with the first phase expected to be complete by late 2004.

"China is extremely important to Nortel Networks, both as a market and as a source for technology talent," said Frank Dunn, president and chief executive officer, Nortel Networks. "With our ongoing emphasis on R&D in China, we are strengthening our presence here to drive the most advanced customer network transformations on a timely basis. We expect to continue to leverage the technology and innovation we develop in China by deploying it in the global marketplace."

Nortel Networks has a strong track record of transforming networks here. The company made its first sale in China in 1972 during the historic visit to Beijing by former U.S. President Richard Nixon.

Now an optical infrastructure market leader in the People's Republic of China, Nortel Networks has supplied dozens of 10-Gigabit and DWDM contracts - spanning a total network distance five times the length of the Great Wall in Beijing.

As well as securing significant data and enterprise networking customers, Nortel Networks is a leader in the ATM market in China, building national ATM backbones for China Telecom, China Netcom and China Railcom, and many provincial ATM/IP networks for China Unicom and China Telecom.

For China Netcom, one of China's leading operators, Nortel Networks is building a national multiservice backbone providing IP Virtual Private Networks and other data services for government and enterprise customers. And the company is supplying switching equipment for 24 universities across six provinces in Western China.

Nortel Networks integrated data network solutions have been deployed within many industries, including the electric power, financial and government sectors.

And Nortel Networks is prepared for China's 3G wireless future. The company implemented wireless solutions in 17 of China's 31 provinces, which includes 17 GSM networks and eight CDMA networks. In addition to providing GSM deployment and expansion for China Unicom and China Mobile, Nortel Networks is a major supplier for China Unicom's CDMA network.

Nortel Networks currently has three joint ventures and a wholly-owned company in China, encompassing many aspects of our manufacturing and production, development, engineering, marketing and technical support. The joint ventures are Guangdong Nortel Telecommunications Equipment Co. Ltd. (GDNT) in Guangdong, Shenyang Nortel Telecommunications Co. Ltd., and Nortel Networks Communications Engineering Co. Ltd. in Beijing. The wholly owned company is Nortel Networks Telecommunications Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd. Two centers are focused on R&D - the Guangdong Nortel Technology Center at Zhongshan University, which is part of the GDNT JV, and the Nortel Networks China R&D Center in Beijing.

Hong Kong's network transformation
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a 1,092-sq.-km. area located on China's southeastern coast, enjoys a high degree of economic autonomy from the PRC - commonly known as the "One Country, Two Systems" approach.

Nortel Network has been active in Hong Kong since 1978, serving a diverse base of telecom service providers, the Hong Kong Special Administrative District and enterprise customers. One of the largest stock exchanges in the world, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. (HKEx) runs its data network on Nortel Networks gear (see the case study). Major international financial institutions here built their emergency back-up and business continuity plans on Nortel Networks solutions. Other milestone contracts include wireline networks for Wharf T&T and New World Telecom, a PCS digital mobile network for SUNDAY, and a high-speed data network capability for PCCW.

A recent contract with Hong Kong Broadband Network is a good example of how Nortel Networks is transforming networks in this region. With our Succession VoIP solution, HKBN expects to drive cost savings by moving its voice, data and video services to a single, packetized network. Already HKBN's network reaches 60 percent of the total households in Hong Kong. HKBN clearly sees the benefits of cutting-edge technology, and Nortel Networks provides a versatile platform to enable it.

Nortel Networks serves a number of blue-chip enterprise customers in Hong Kong, including providing award-winning PABX and call center solutions for Hutchison Whampoa, Mass Transit Railway Corporation and Cathay Pacific Airways, and the gigabit networking solution for Standard Chartered Bank.

The Nortel Networks Meridian 1 PBX solution also provides communication services in major government departments, including the Hong Kong Police Force and the Hong Kong Fire Services department. In many five-star hotels in Hong Kong as well as in other industries such as banking and finance, travel, health care and insurance, our Meridian 1 PBX solution is playing an integral part in daily business communications.

Taiwan leads 3G deployment in the region
Nortel Networks Taiwan's wireless momentum started early, when the company won a contract in 1994 from the Directorate General of Telecommunications GSM mobile project to build Chunghwa Telecom's GSM network for 500,000 mobile subscribers. In October 2003, that network had expanded from 500,000 to 8 million subscribers. Chunghwa Telecom is at present the biggest GSM operator in Taiwan, and Nortel Networks is the single vendor for its GSM infrastructure. And in July 1999, a wireless captive office was completed to provide enhanced network management support and on-site technical training for Chunghwa Telecom.

Nortel Networks accomplished an important milestone in Taiwan's wireless history in July 2003 with the deployment of a CDMA 2000 1x-EVDO network that positions Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless to launch Taiwan's first commercial 3G services.

Also in July 2003, Taiwan Fixed Network, a leading fixed-line operator in Taiwan, deployed Passport 7000 Multiservice Switches for an island-wide data network that supports ATM and IP traffic for the customer's affiliate company Taiwan Cellular Corp. The new Passport-based data network is an integral part of TCC's UMTS 3G wireless Radio Access Network, featuring the first UMTS RAN aggregation application in Asia for Nortel Networks.

Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's dominant fixed-line operator, is one of the best showcases of how our technologies support customers' business expansion. Nortel Networks supplied Chunghwa Telecom with 10-Gbps long-haul technology, Shasta multi-service solutions and GSM mobile. We were the first vendor to successfully complete a next-generation network trial for Chunghwa Telecom.

Click here for printable PDFs: Quick Proof Points Customer Wins Timeline LC President Messages: Pascal Debon Sue Spradley Brian McFadden Malcolm Collins

Alternative carriers such as Taiwan Fixed Network and Eastern Broadband Telecommunications also run their networks on Nortel Networks gear. And the roll-call of our successes in Taiwan doesn't stop there. Home-grown multinational enterprises like UMC, TSMC, Chinatrust Commercial Bank and Formosa Plastics Group are building their enterprise voice and data networks on Nortel Networks end-to-end solutions.