The Australian Department of Defence has deployed a Gigabit Ethernet solution from Nortelat its bases located throughout Australia as part of a countrywide network upgrade project.

 The upgrade, estimated at approximately $2.8 million, provides increased bandwidth and reliability to improve the flow of information between the bases. It is allowing Department of Defence networks to move away from older network equipment installed at the time of the Y2K changeover to new Gigabit Ethernet technology.

"Nortel is a major provider of solutions for large government and military organisations around the world, and in Australia our relationship with the Department of Defence stretches back more than a decade," said Mark Stevens, president, Australia and New Zealand, Nortel. “We are very pleased to have our solution selected by the Department of Defence, a customer whose needs we have consistently met.”

The Nortel solution includes Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600s, along with a number of smaller Ethernet Routing Switches that provide 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) speeds throughout the secure network grid.