Nortel to provide London Olympic networks

Nortel has been selected to supply the network infrastructure for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The telecom company will be responsible for providing BT with equipment for Wide Area Networks (WAN) and wireless Local Area Networks (LAN), as well as call centre and a fixed telephony infrastructure.

BT is already London 2012's communication services partner and the choice of Nortel builds on a long-standing relationship that the two telecom companies have had for more than two decades.

"Nortel has supplied network equipment to BT for many years enabling us to deliver communications services to some of our major corporate and government customers in the UK," said Patrick O'Connell, President of Delivery & Service Operations at BT Global Services.

Nortel will also receive exclusive marketing rights and usage rights to the London 2012 brand and will also be working on the Paralympic Games. Other companies involved in supplying technology to the Olympics include Atos Origin and Samsung.

Nortel also becomes London 2012's fourth sustainability partner with EDF Energy, BT and BP, with a remit to reduce environmental impact by reducing the carbon footprint of the products they supply.

President and chief executive of Nortel Mike Zafirovski said that by 2012, technology will have evolved to the extent that athletes and spectators would demand an immersive online environment.

"The network infrastructure is fundamental to the Games and critical to the delivery of its communications services," he said.