OTTAWA – Nortel [NYSE/TSX: NT] and LG Electronics have taken LTE from the labs to the streets to complete the world’s first mobile LTE live air handover. Engineers at Nortel’s Research and Development Centre of Excellence in Ottawa showed streaming HD video on an early LTE mobile device from LG Electronics while driving at speeds of 100 kms per hour and moving between coverage sites. This advancement shows the capabilities of Nortel’s LTE solution in real world conditions and brings it closer to commercial readiness, which is expected by the end of 2009.

The milestone announced today shows that Nortel’s LTE solution can provide the reliable mobile coverage that today’s 2G and 3G network users depend on while offering much greater bandwidth, higher capacity and lower latency. Wireless networks provide pervasive coverage, keeping users connected as they move between coverage areas by handing connections over from one transmitter site to the next. Nortel’s LTE live air handover demonstrated this important capability. LTE helps bridge the gap between network demand and capability allowing operators to create a 4G wireless broadband network that can cover millions of mobile subscribers.

“Nortel continues to innovate in wireless technologies like LTE, leading the way to the next generation of true mobile broadband to support the demands of hyperconnected users,” said Richard Lowe, president of carrier networks, Nortel. “Today’s telecommunications market is experiencing a massive trend towards Hyperconnectivity as more people and devices become connected. With the increasing popularity of bandwidth-intensive applications over mobile devices like laptops and smartphones, wireless operators need to prepare to offer a complete personal broadband experience.”

“Operators can leverage the capabilities of LTE to allow subscribers to take their personalized versions of the web - their videos, their social networks, their music, their business tools – with them wherever they are,” Lowe said.” Mature telecommunications markets can also maximize the content-rich applications and services enabled by LTE to drive new revenue.”

“Nortel, the LG-Nortel JV, and LG Electronics are accelerating the commercialization of LTE and showing consistent progress towards end-to-end interoperability to ensure alignment between infrastructure and devices,” said Jinsung Choi, head of LG Electronics’ Mobile Communications Tech Research Lab. “During our three years of collaboration we have set the bar for innovation in LTE, showing the world how true mobile broadband can bring us the highest quality communication and entertainment no matter where we are.”

The LTE demonstration was conducted over a network consisting of multiple cell sites and sectors served by Nortel’s eNodeB LTE base station and ATCA-based Access Gateway. The interoperability between Nortel’s network and the device from LG Electronics is based on 3GPP Release 8 Standard. As the first in the world to reach this milestone, Nortel is leading the way to making LTE a reality for carriers and their customers.

Nortel’s LTE solutions will allow operators to simply, efficiently, and cost-effectively bring 4G mobile broadband to their customers regardless of what type of network an operator is currently running – CDMA, GSM, UMTS – or if they are a new entrant to the wireless market.

To learn more about Nortel’s LTE development strategy listen to this podcast with Danny Locklear, Nortel’s vice president of marketing for carrier networks: http://podcast.nortel.com/podcasts/nortel_4g_lte_strategy_7240.mp3