Editing Nortel (section)

=== Northern Telecom and "Digital World" ===
{{plain image with caption|Northern Telecom logo.svg|Logo used from the mid-1970s to 1995}}
<!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: [[File:northerntelecom.png|155|left|Old Northern Telecom (Nortel) logo]] -->

In March 1976, the company name was changed to Northern Telecom Limited, and management announced its intention to concentrate the company's efforts on digital technology.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3A2525887|title=Yesterday we were Northern Electric. Today we're Northern Telecom. Is this good for Canada|date=March 1, 1976|work=The Winnipeg Tribune|access-date=April 28, 2019|page=3 (advertisement)|archive-date=August 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804182554/https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3A2525887|url-status=live}}</ref> Northern Telecom was the first company in its industry to announce and deliver a complete line of fully digital telecommunications products.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Northern Electric—Nortel Networks Collection · York University Computer Museum Canada |url=https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/collections/show/18 |access-date=2025-02-07 |website=museum.eecs.yorku.ca}}</ref> The product line was branded "Digital World" and included the [[DMS-100]], a fully digital central office switch serving as many as 100,000 lines, which was a key contributor to the company's revenue for close to 15 years.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Northern Electric- A Brief History |url=https://memorial.bellsystem.com/northern_electric_history.html |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=memorial.bellsystem.com}}</ref>

Starting in 1977, Nortel grew rapidly after the introduction of its DMS line of digital central office telephone switches, especially after the [[American Telephone & Telegraph|AT&T]] breakup in 1984. Northern Telecom became a significant supplier in Europe and China<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=van de Kaa|first1=G.|last2=Greeven|first2=M. J.|date=2017-05-01|title=Mobile telecommunication standardization in Japan, China, the United States, and Europe: a comparison of regulatory and industrial regimes|journal=Telecommunication Systems|language=en|volume=65|issue=1|pages=181–192|doi=10.1007/s11235-016-0214-y|issn=1572-9451|doi-access=free}}</ref> {{citation needed|date=May 2012}} and was the first non-Japanese supplier to [[Nippon Telegraph and Telephone]].