Comtek cooks up support plan for Nortel customers

Nortel is selling various parts of its business to Ericsson, Avaya and Radware

IT and telecoms repair service Comtek Network Systems has unveiled a new programme designed to help existing Nortel customers who may be worried about being left in the lurch by the ailing company.

Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection in January and has recently sold, or is in the process of selling, various parts of its business to Ericsson, Avaya and Radware.

Cashing in on the company's woes, Comtek has launched the Nortel Customer Rescue Programme which offers a repair service for any legacy and end-of-life Nortel equipment that faces reduced or withdrawn technical support. The kit includes Nortel's enterprise product portfolio, as well as its transmission products for backbone networks.

"Nortel's problems have been well documented but, as it sells off its remaining assets, many customers could be left staring into the abyss, as the products they rely on for their core business operations may no longer be supported," said Askar Sheibani, chief executive of Comtek.

"Multiple global infrastructures are based on Nortel equipment, and we've already had enquiries from major carriers asking if we can repair and support these legacy systems.

"We're launching the Nortel Customer Rescue Programme with this in mind, reaching out to the many companies that see genuine value in continuing to use Nortel equipment in these tough economic times, rather than embarking on expensive and unnecessary upgrade projects."

Traditionally the culture has been to upgrade equipment regularly, but the recession has seen companies bleeding these assets for longer periods and turning to infrastructure repair to help delay or defray costly expenditure.

"Repairing products should not be viewed as an inferior option to upgrading. The fact is that if a piece of IT or telecoms equipment serves a particular function well, there is no need to replace it on the first occasion that it breaks down," added Sheibani.

"It's more convenient and substantially cheaper to avoid replacing equipment unless there is a legitimate business need for doing so, and usually the only problem for companies is finding a qualified pair of hands to restore the equipment to working order."

The company admitted that it did not work with Nortel nor any of the companies acquiring parts of the business when it developed the programme.