Antonio Pio de Roda, country manager for Nortel Philippines, said 70 percent of the network equipment provider's business in the country is generated by local telecommunications companies. The rest of its local revenues come from the enterprise market, composed of about 500 Philippine-based companies.

The company is counting on its installed base of traditional TDM (time division multiplexing) telephony systems in targeting would-be VOIP (voice-over Internet protocol) users, a market also heavily targeted by competitors like Avaya, Cisco and Alcatel.