White Plains, NY -- Nortel and IBM have signed an agreement designed to support customized products across a range of market segments. As the first step in this relationship, the companies will establish a Joint Development,Center in Research Triangle Park, NC, to collaborate on the design and development of new products and services.

Nortel expects to utilize IBM engineering and technical services for a number of projects, aimed at broadening Nortel end-to-end broadband, Voice over IP, multimedia services and applications and wireless broadband offerings.