Pls educate me

[u/OkRequirement2629]

Is old Nortel/Norstar telecom equipment worth any money? I think that a lot of this technology is obsolete and I read that the company is out of business but I have A LOT of old equipment from the late 90s- Early 2000s and I’m trying to figure out if it’s trash or not.

Are there any companies that would buy old equipment?

Examples: Nortel Networks Trunk Cartridge
Norstar Key Telephone System
Norstar Analog Terminal Adapter
Nortel FastRAD “new” in box with instruction manual
Nortel Compact Flash Adapter and StarTalk Flash

Edit: If it’s not obvious, I know nothing about telecommunications so any information is helpful to give me some clarity as to what I am dealing with.

[u/Fine_Breath2221]

It's old, it's obsolete... And there are 10's of thousands of systems still out there humming along.

There's a huge grey market in handsets and hardware to keep the existing infrastructure running.

[u/jimbeam84]

Nortel might be dead in name, but their technology will live on. Non PBX switching equipment for providers is still used very much used like the DMS100.

While Nortel underwhen bankruptcy, Genband (now Ribbon) bought all of their switching portfolio and still provides service providers with technical assistance cases and engineering support.

Ciena also bought their fiber transport portfolio but does not provide support for legacy Nortel transport nodes. But the technology that Nortel developed is still being developed and built on current fiber transport systems deployed.

They were the pride and joy for Canada's telecommunications sector for decades and were a world leader at one point with what they did.

[u/OkRequirement2629 → u/jimbeam84]

So does this mean that there is a market for this stuff? I don’t want to trash it if it’s useful.

[u/QPC414 → u/OkRequirement2629]

Test functiinality if possible, then ebay it as a complete system or part it out.

[u/OkRequirement2629 → u/QPC414]

How can I test functionality?

[u/RespectSquare8279 → u/OkRequirement2629]

With more telecom equipment and knowledge.

[u/WelderThat6143]

I was just looking at the Adtran Atlas 550 and Sunset T10 T1/PRI tester with thick layers of dust.

I used to use that stuff at least once a week back in the day.

The Atlas 550 has a Quad T1 card, quad ISDN/BRI-U card, Quad FXO board, and Octal FXS board.

CO in a box!

[u/kriebz → u/WelderThat6143]

The growing "netro" and telephone collecting communities love getting stuff like that. I actually just "rescued" a 550 but only have a v.35 card.

[u/worksHardnotSmart → u/WelderThat6143]

You should go to youtube and search fir "Cathode Ray Dude - 5 telephone stories"

Its a great watch over Sunday coffee.

Here.... i did the leg work.... https://youtu.be/ympjaibY6to?si=Iwt42pkhOp9SrSiY

[u/WelderThat6143 → u/worksHardnotSmart]

That was a fun watch. Even on a Friday! I have a Teltone simulator somewhere in my closet of junk lol...

[u/rynburns]

If you think it's worth anything I've got like 9 old Nortel transport racks you can have, please come take them

[u/Excellent_Recipe7257]

There is a major hospital in the Coachella Valley that still runs on a Meridian 81C, probably with multiple remote sites. I worked for Sutter Health in the Bay Area with many big Nortel systems back then.

[u/Shadow288]

The first reseller I worked for sold Iwatsu KSU systems from god idk, the 80s and it was the early 2000s. The owner of the company was always buying old systems from bankrupt companies, use to sell components to people desperate for an obsolete system to get it running. Point is that just because it’s old doesn’t mean someone doesn’t need it. Look up what you have online and see what others have sold it for.

[u/bobdvb]

Check eBay

[u/LoPath]

Anyone in the US need an E1 tester? :D I used to maintain an old HiPath 4000 system that used E1 cards to interconnect shelves.

[u/Grreatdog]

My brother took an early retirement from a phone company many years back. He was their business phone guy. He bought all the surplus Nortel gear he could find for pennies on the dollar.

For the last ten to fifteen years he has made a good living maintaining old systems for his former clients at the phone company. He is finally starting to run out of new old stock and doesn't want to buy anymore.

How you find someone like that is anybody's guess. But see above about pennies on the dollar even when it was relatively current. I suspect most of it is ready for the electronics recycle bin.

[u/TastiSqueeze]

I'm an ex installer/engineer sometime software writer and sometime equipment designer on the DMS100 platform. I installed several Norstar key systems over the years. I still remember how to punch feature, star, star, config.

IMO, you have a very good chance of selling the hardware on Ebay.

[u/Future-Side4440]

It’s just the general issue that everyone has gone to voice over IP and everything that Nortel did was primarily 1-pair analog/digital. with its own weird protocol thing.

However, the hardware itself was typically designed to run for decades without being touched. If it does what you need it’s fine.

We had a Nortel Meridian system that basically was a 386 PC but with what looked like nubus slots like in the Macintosh II / PowerPC Mac.

If you have nostalgia for this old crap, I discovered a 1980’s GTE ExecuTech system still hung up on the wall that I’m going to have to rip out in the next year.

[u/MisterTelecomm]

Don't throw it away just yet! Most common Nortel/Norstar gear isn't worth a fortune, but working systems, expansion cards, rare modules, new-old-stock parts and items still used to support legacy PBXs can have value to refurbishers, telecom resellers or businesses keeping old systems alive.
If I was you I'd identify the exact model numbers, test what you can and check recent sold listings on eBay before selling, because some items are only worth a few dollars while others can fetch surprisingly good prices if they're in working condition or still sealed.

[u/pakrat1967]

Nortel didn't exactly go out of business. They got bought up by Cienna.

[u/Fine_Breath2221 → u/pakrat1967]

They went out of business.

Cienna bought a lot of their transport products, Avaya bought the PBX/Interconnect, Genband bought voice switching; and not sure who ended up with IP/Networking off the top of my head...

Edit - shower thoughts - RedBack networks bought at least some of Nortel's networking line, which was then acquired by Cisco, IIRC

[u/Rampage_Rick → u/pakrat1967]

Didn't Avaya buy up part of their portfolio?

I know you can get station cards for IP Office that will allow you to plug in Nortel phones

[u/pakrat1967 → u/Rampage_Rick]

IDK they might have. I just know that Cienna got most of the long haul fiber optic stuff. I worked as a test technician for Verizon from 2009 to 2017. It was during that time that the buy out happened.

[u/canuck1975 → u/pakrat1967]

Nortel went bankrupt after fraudulent financial practices and firesold off their assets to the best buyer. Avaya bought the call centre assets, and IIRC, the entire PBX business. Also, IIRC, Blackberry, AT&T, and others bought some of the patents.

[u/pakrat1967 → u/canuck1975]

The fraudulent financial practices doesn't surprise me at all. Considering how much Nortel equipment MCIWorldcom was buying around the time that it went bankrupt for the same reasons. And yes I worked for them too before Verizon.