Canadian network equipment manufacturer Nortel will inaugurate an excellence centre for wireless technologies in Romania, where software applications and hardware equipment will be produced for the third generation telephony networks (3G), Sorin Lupu, Nortel Networks president of the IPSEE region (Israel, Poland and SE Europe) told Ziarul Financiar.
Nortel is one of the main competitors of world's leading networking equipment manufacturer Cisco.
Nortel wants to turn its office in Romania into a starting point for its Western European offensive. "Romania will be an important bridgehead for Nortel, wherefrom a number of regions in Europe will be covered," Sorin Lupu said. Nortel's involvement on the Romanian market will not stop here, though the company officials say major projects of the company will be brought to this centre next year.
Nortel Networks initiative comes after a number of top IT and telecommunications companies have opened such centres in Bucharest, i.e. Oracle, Microsoft, IBM or Motorola in the last 18 months.
"We have a team of Romanian specialists that are now working on software applications for the third generation mobile phones in England, for the British O2 operator, the former mobile division of British Telecom (BT). They will form the core of this excellence centre," Sorin Lupu said.
Nortel has made significant research and development investments in Romania, and is currently employing more than 200 people developing software applications for computer and communications networks. At the same time, they are working on the design and building of hardware components used in the equipment Nortel sells throughout the entire world, the company officials say. "We invested several million dollars in Romania this year. At least two million (1.5 million euros i.e.)," Lupu said. The e
