Last week was a big one for our MEN business, as Nortel announced asset sale agreements for the proposed sale of our Optical and Carrier Ethernet businesses to Ciena. As with the various other businesses Nortel is in the process of selling, this sale to Ciena is subject to a competitive bidding process, with Ciena now identified as the "stalking horse".

One of the most interesting parts of the optical business that Ciena bid for is, of course, Nortel's 40G/100G technology. And it turns out that quite a few others like the technology, too, according to a new report from analyst firm Infonetics.

Infonetics has a new global optical survey that they are promoting here with the headline of "Carriers rank Nortel as top 40G/100G technology leader in optical equipment vendor survey". The survey polled purchase decision-makers at carriers in EMEA, North America, and Asia Pacific about optical transmission and switching equipment vendors. According to the highlights of the survey, in an open-ended question about 40G and 100G technology leaders, most service providers named Nortel as the top vendor.

Of course, this isn't the first time Nortel's 40G/100G technology has been praised. A similar Infonetics report from last year also had carriers rank Nortel #1 for optical technology and product roadmap, and recently an Ovum report talked up the benefits of our 40G Submarine Optical solution.