"Nobody is upset or concerned," said Steve Ford, president of the International Nortel Networks Users Association (INNUA) in Chicago. "We kind of take [the planned restatements] like water off a duck's back."

With about 5,000 members, INNUA is the largest Nortel user group. Ford said the INNUA board was holding a meeting on March 10 when Nortel's management called to inform the board members of the restatement plans, which were announced that day.

"They explained things and get credit for contacting us proactively. It's not that Nortel lost revenue. They just put it in the wrong quarter," said Ford, who is coordinator of electronic services at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla. Ford said he remains satisfied with the performance of the Nortel products installed at Northeastern State.

He oversees three campus voice networks that run entirely on Nortel gear, and he is slowly introducing voice-over-IP phones made by the vendor.

Nortel said the planned restatement of its results for 2003, 2004 and the first nine months of 2005 primarily stems from a need to correct errors in reporting revenue that should have been deferred to future quarters. The restatements are also expected to include adjustments to the figures for prior years, said Brampton, Ontario-based Nortel, which is delaying the release of its 2005 Form 10-K report until next month.