As my teammate Ryan Hill highlighted in a post a few weeks ago, the blogging team for Buzzboard is evolving a bit. I've moved into the Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) business, and will be focusing my blogging efforts from here on out on MEN topics.

And with that I'll give you the latest piece of news around Nortel's 40G solution, with the announcement yesterday that Lightower has gone live with a 40G network upgrade based on Nortel 40G. In fact, Lightower (which has over 4,000 route miles of fiber) is the first provider in the Northeast to provide their customers with a 40G bandwidth service.

We all know that LTE is the next big thing in the world of wireless networks. Mobile data demands are on the rise and LTE promises the 'true mobile broadband' experience needed to keep the people happy. However, mass adoption of LTE is still a few years away. Until then, CDMA operators are focusing on how to manage growing numbers of subscribers and higher network usage with today's technology.

Operators all over the world are seeing high demand in their CDMA markets. In fact, according to CDG, CDMA subscribers are projected to grow from 480 million users today to over 700 million subscribers by 2013. With this growth come the challenges of how to manage higher network usage while maintaining or growing revenues. Can operators do this with CDMA? Yes. The technology, although mature, still has a lot of life left in it. Advances in the efficiency and capacity of CDMA networks, including the data-supporting EV-DO networks, allow operators to continue meeting user demands while still generating revenues from their networks.

One of the big debates going on in the optical industry right now is whether 40G services will take off, or if service providers around the world will just wait until 100G solutions are available.

This "skip 40G" debate is the focus of this recent video that Light Reading posted, and the idea of going straight to 100G is something that has been pushed -- not surprisingly -- by some of the industry's optical vendors that lack a viable 40G solution.

Nortel, of course, is not one of those. While we have plans to introduce a 100G solution later this year, Nortel is clearly on the side of "40G is a viable market."

The first headline in the news that Nortel issued just a few hours ago centered around the 'stalking horse' agreement that Nortel has entered into with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to purchase Nortel's CDMA and LTE assets.

But it's the secondary headline that many people -- employees, customers, and others -- will be just as interested in: "Company Advancing in Its Discussions With External Parties To Sell Other Businesses"

In an email to all Nortel employees, Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski dedicates much of his thoughts to outlining the path Nortel has chosen to sell its other business units, and what this means for employees and customers.

Nortel has just issued the following press release announcing that we have entered into a 'Stalking Horse' agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks to sell our CDMA and LTE assets for $650 million.

Nortel to Sell CDMA Business and LTE Assets; Company Advancing in its Discussions with External Parties to Sell Other Businesses

This is obviously a major piece of news, so we'll have more details and coverage of this through the weekend and into next week.

We wanted to take a few minutes to introduce some new bloggers we're adding to the mix here on Buzzboard. As a member of the Corporate Communications team, I (Ryan Hill) will be jumping in to help blog about general Nortel news and announcements - along with Jay Barta who's been a regular contributor for a while now. And I'll be working to incorporate content from new bloggers reporting directly from Nortel's lines of business, including:

• Bo Gowan will be focusing his work on news from the Metro Ethernet Networking Business. They have been doing some great things with 40G/ 100G and Bo is linked in to keep that news coming.

• Karen Monaghan, will be providing the latest on Nortel's wireless business and mobility solutions

• Jamie Moody will be posting from our Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions business, and will be keeping us up to date on the latest in her group

• Pat Cooper and Camille Beasley are stepping in from the Enterprise team to ensure we know what's going on with Nortel's data portfolio, developments in our energy efficiency projects and everything else Enterprise at Nortel

Our CEO Mike Z appeared before the Canadian House of Commons finance committee earlier today to discuss the company's decision to pay retention bonuses in the wake of stopping severance payments to many laid off workers.

Reuters provides a nice overview of the event here, and you can read the transcript of Mike Z's comments in the National Post here. Also, a number of stories, including ones from Dow Jones and Bloomberg reported on discussions with the Canadian government for financial aid.

Nortel has been awarded one of marketing's most presigious awards

- a 2009 Effie Gold Award for its Energy Efficiency marketing campaign that's helping businesses go green and save money on energy costs.

Nortel was recognized along with other marketing/brand giants like Apple, Converse, McDonalds & Coca-Cola - see the complete list of 2009 Effie trophy winners here.

While most of the attention for Nortel this week was focused on the INNUA Global Connect event for enterprise customers, Nortel's MEN business announced another significant step in the race towards 100G optical.

Earlier this week, Nortel issued this press release highlighting the successful completion of a 100G trial with SURFnet, which runs an advanced Research and Education (R&E) network in the Netherlands. Their network, by the way, already supports 10G and 40G connections using Nortel's OME 6500.

There are some things you buy knowing full well ahead of time that they are going to break on you. Sunglasses, that amazingly cheap $25 no-name DVD player, and of course anything with batteries that you give to your kids.

But there are somethings you buy knowing that "breaking" isn't a viable option. Enterprise network equipment is one of those things. That's why most network vendors offer varying degrees of warranty and support protection on new hardware they sell.

But today at the INNUA Global Connect event in Pittsburgh, Nortel announced a new lifetime warranty program for its Ethernet Routing Switch portfolio that our enterprise guys think is above and beyond any other warranty and support program out there.

My teammate David Durham is at Global Connect in Pittsburgh this week and sent me a few photos from the event:

Nortel's biggest annual Enterprise customer event, Global Connect, has kicked off this week in Pittsburgh.

The event, which is hosted every year by INNUA (International Nortel Networks Users Association), provides a forum for members to interact with Nortel execs and technology experts, 100+ networking vendors, other industry peers and customers - and, the opportunity to test drive Nortel's latest solutions and demos first hand.

Ok, I know I'm tooting my own horn here, but you gotta check out this story in today's Dallas Morning News: 'Nortel's clinic in Richardson aims to improve medical care' -- nice run-down on the medical networking tools we're working on...

"A tour of Nortel's new facility is eye-popping both for the ingenuity of the products and the relative simplicity of the underlying technology."

Nortel took another step in the race towards 100G last week. JANET, a research and education (R&E) network in the UK, announced with this press release last week that it was the first R&E network in the world to successfully complete a 100G network trial.

The trial, conducted in April with Nortel and Verizon, spanned a 103km link between London and Reading in the UK. Verizon Business operates JANET's UK backbone network, and supplied the fiber infrastructure for the trail. Nortel provided the 100G equipment.

Nortel has just issued this press release announcing that it is seeking a buyer for Nortel's majority stake in the LG-Nortel joint venture.

LG-Nortel is a JV between LG Electronics and Nortel that was formed back in 2005, and has generated positive cash flow from operations since its inception. While some may see LG-Nortel as focused only on the Korean market, the company has been increasing its presence around the globe.