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- Fully Redundant Infrastructure Supports Growing Communication Needs of Students, Faculty and Staff on Campus - ATLANTA, June 13 /PRNewswire/ -- BellSouth (NYSE:BLS) announced today that it will provide a fully redundant, carrier-class Nortel telecommunications switch for Georgia Institute of Technology to support the communication needs of students, faculty and staff. The advanced switch will support up to 50,000 phone lines and connects 113 classroom and administration buildings, dormitories, research laboratories and sports facilities to friends, family and colleagues around the world. The project is currently in the final design phases for the Atlanta campus and BellSouth will begin implementation this summer. Additional phases of the project will support other Georgia Tech sites throughout the state, including a research facility in Cobb County. "Georgia Tech is home to some of the top students, researchers and technology projects in the world," said John Mullin, chief information officer, Georgia Institute of Technology. "This research community depends on secure and reliable voice networks to communicate and BellSouth is delivering that solution." The term "carrier-class" is associated with the Nortel CS 2100 switch due to its ability to provide fully redundant support of a large number of end users and applications, similar to the switches that reside in telecommunications carrier networks. The Nortel CS 2100 solution for Georgia Tech includes a geographically split core design. If a portion of the switch fails, the other half will maintain uninterrupted service to Georgia Tech's campus. The switch is managed and maintained by dedicated BellSouth technicians. For additional business continuity, the switch connects directly to BellSouth's self-healing, fully redundant fiber ring architecture, known as SONET. This SONET ring consists of two diverse paths of fiber that connect both distributed switch core locations on the Georgia Tech campus to each other and the BellSouth network. If one fiber path is cut, the signal will travel over the second fiber route. If both fiber paths are cut, the signal reverses and travels around the remaining arc of the loop. In addition to the switch's survivability, Georgia Tech selected the solution because it supports new and emerging protocols, such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for voice over IP and dual mode wireless technologies. Georgia Tech could use the CS 2100 for research on new applications to support virtual learning and future multimedia services. "BellSouth, Nortel and Georgia Tech all provide significant intellectual and capital investment to the technology community through joint research, technology jobs and the sharing of network resources," said Dick Anderson, president and vice-chairman, BellSouth Business Markets. "The new switch will help ensure that Georgia Tech can continue to effectively communicate as it aggressively develops the leading technologists of tomorrow." For more information about BellSouth voice and data solutions for large business customers, visit http://www.bellsouthlargebusiness.com/. About BellSouth Corporation BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 500 communications company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth has joint control and 40 percent ownership of Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest wireless voice and data provider with 55.8 million customers. Backed by award-winning customer service, BellSouth offers the most comprehensive and innovative package of voice and data services available in the market. Through BellSouth Answers(R), residential and small business customers can bundle their local and long distance service with dial-up and high-speed DSL Internet access, satellite television and Cingular(R) Wireless service. For businesses, BellSouth provides secure, reliable local and long distance voice and data networking solutions. BellSouth also offers print and online directory advertising through The Real Yellow Pages(R) and YELLOWPAGES.COM(TM) from BellSouth. BellSouth believes that diversity and fostering an inclusive environment are critical in maintaining a competitive advantage in today's global marketplace. More information about BellSouth can be found at http://www.bellsouth.com/. DATASOURCE: BellSouth Corporation CONTACT: Todd Smith of BellSouth, +1-404-226-8918, or Web site: http://www.bellsouthlargebusiness.com/ http://www.bellsouth.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/095650.html

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