After having promised to file its revisions by the end of October, Nortel Networks Corp. said it would delay its long-awaited restatement for the second time.

The embattled telecom-equipment maker had first promised to release its revised financials for 2003 and the first and second quarters of 2004 in September.

Nortel has dedicated 650 finance staff to its restatement, according to Reuters. “By the time Nortel financial results come out, we’ll need to use radio carbon dating on them,” Duncan Stewart, fund manager at Tera Capital, told the news service.

Based on work to date, Nortel will boost revenue by about 7 percent in 2001, 1 percent in 2002, and 3 percent in 2003, according to the company. Revenue adjustments in 2003 and periods before that mainly concern timing issues–revenue that should have been deferred to a later period or recognized in an earlier period.

Further, Nortel acknowledged that it would reduce previously announced net earnings for 2003 by about 50 percent. The company will report that amount largely in prior periods, producing cuts in previously reported net losses for those periods, which include 2002 and 2001.

Concerning the delay, Bill Owens, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said that Nortel’s first loyalty is to the “unquestionable quality of this restatement for our shareholders, customers, and employees.” He said he “was not satisfied given the enormous details and complexity involved that we would be able to meet our October deadline.”