Also, carrier Ethernet is coming to provide quality of service and quality of experience, as well as security, for subscribers. It's 30 percent to 40 percent cheaper than the traditional way of extending packet services into the Metro Area Network. It means customers of carriers will be able to get cheaper VPNs. That's something we'll see in a two-year window.

Also coming, SIP capability and sensor capability will be merged, meaning location will become relevant in the use of devices. And that ability will change how people use the network, and change attention away from what device a person is using to just contacting the person. That, in turn, changes the jobs for users and IT who manage circuits or set up an audio or video bridge. Instead, you'll go into a voice or video session and add and delete sessions through a SIP-based infrastructure and simply engage the other parties.

It's nice to hear things might be simpler! Absolutely, things have to get simpler, because if it's complicated, people won't use the technology. In another way, if you add security and force users to keep remembering passwords, it won't be used. The network has to be more invisible to work in.

How are customers reacting to the new Nortel when you go out and talk to them? I can't address marketing, but from our customers' perspective, they know when we put something out that it will work. In fact, they are often frustrated with us that we didn't tell them aggressively that we had some of this new technology in the works. Few companies other than Nortel can preintegrate SIP and sensor technology and other things successfully on their own platforms.

Nortel got back into doing its own research in the mid-1990s, so how many R&D staffers do you have today? About 12,000.