Phung

In offices across the United States and the world, phones drive business. Phone systems enable the vital communication portals that allow cross city, state, and country decisions to be made, whether a simple lunch order or a multi million dollar closure. One corporation that has been involved in this daily business-communication cycle from the infancy of telecommunications has been Nortel Networks Corporation. However, Nortel has not enjoyed a linear, smooth growth; like many companies aged 100 years or more, several transformations, for better or worse, have occurred to shape the giant Nortel Networks Corporation is today.

Nortel began its trek through the world of business in 1895 as Northern Electric, a spin off company of Bell Telephone Company of Canada, incorporated to manufacture business-to-business phones as well as other devices. Northern Electric morphed further into the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company Limited before the turn of century. With its headquarters and first factories centered in Montreal, Northern Electric continued with phone and other device manufacturing and selling into the early 1900s, when, in 1914, a merger with Imperial Cable resulted in a new Northern Electric, co-owned by Bell Canada and Western Electric, a U.S. company.

Business continued to grow for Northern Electric after the Western Electric merger until an anti-trust suit was brought against AT&T/Western Electric in 1946, forcing Northern to be sold exclusively to Bell Canada, and in turn forcing Northern Electric to stop producing and distributing products built for Western Electric. Due to this critical financial and logistical set back, Northern began manufacturing and distributing their products, including television sets. In 1964, Bell Canada bought full ownership of Northern Electric and in 1973, took the company public. Within this period of time, two vital decisions were made to advance Northern Electric; first, in 1969, Northern began working on digitizing their telephone systems. Second, steps were taken to enter the U.S. market, including their first U.S. factory opening in Michigan in 1972. These steps resulted in Northern shipping its first digital switching system in 1975.

With a company name change to Northern Telecom Limited, a push to concentrate the companys emphasis on digital technology, and a merging of parent company Bell Canada Enterprises, Bell Canada and Northern Telecom, and Bell-Northern Research in 1986, business was thriving. In 1995, the company we know today was branded; its 100 year anniversary unveiled the company's streamlined corporate identity, Nortel Networks Corporation.

Gary Evans is CEO of Hi Line Supply, a Dallas-based telecommunications company with 20 years experience in finding Nortel Norstar, selling Norstar Meridian, and refurbishing Norstar BCM telephone systems. With a company at the forefront of telecommunication equipment, their services reach beyond Texas and the US to their international clients.