We've had a few folks ask us why the Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions group would attend Mobile World Congress, what many refer to as a "wireless" tradeshow.

There are a couple of reasons. First, while the title of this show is "mobile" the fact of the matter is that service providers are now operating converged networks that include wireless, wireline, and mobile IP broadband access. With IP broadband they've enabled a whole new world of IP Communications and, as the leader in Carrier IP Communications, Nortel CVAS clearly will be a leader in delivering Mobile VoIP over the new 4G broadband access networks. So, we're at Mobile World Congress because we provide VoIP solutions for any broadband service provider, whether they're wireless, wireline cable.

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.

Here's a video of our IP Powered Business Demo from MWC. This is especially good stuff for SMBs. The technology untethers workers from their desks to help make them more productive. It gives you sophisticated call routing, screening and conferencing options, and allows you to set up a single phone number and mailbox that follows you regardless of your location. Best of all, it can make any call (i.e from your cell, home phone, computer, etc.) look like it is coming directly from your office number or extension, which can come in handy if you need to call your top client - or, um, your boss - from the golf course.

Heads up - this video is a tad long, and the first half is background/narrative, so skip to the middle if you just want to see the live demo portion.

This morning at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Verizon CTO Dick Lynch announced the vendors they had selected for Verizon's initial LTE network deployment. Nortel was not one of the vendors selected for the next round of Verizon's LTE deployment.

For some of you, the initial reaction to this news might be to question the future of Nortel in LTE -- but that would be a case of jumping to conclusions. While Verizon's announcement certainly isn't the news we wanted, it doesn't mean that success in the LTE market is no longer possible for Nortel.

No surprise, the universal topic hanging over Mobile World Congress this year is today's challenging economic climate, fueling widespread discussion on how the mobile industry can best compete in such a tough environment.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer went so far as to say that it's a "super interesting time to talk about the mobile industry". Microsoft is making a big push at MWC this year to drive uptake for their mobile platform, Windows Mobile, in an attempt to take a bigger bite out of Apple's iPhone success.

As I blogged about on Friday, Mobile World Congress kicked off today in Barcelona. I'll provide an update on the event later today, but in the meantime, here's a few snapshots of all the behind the scenes work that goes into getting the Nortel booth ready for the big show (click on the thumbnails to see the full-size images).

Next week the mobile industry elite will gather once again in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress - the wireless industry's largest trade show.

Mike Z and senior Nortel executives will be meeting with dozens of our biggest customers, and we'll be showcasing our latest wireless technologies, including world firsts in next-generation video and LTE, new carrier VoIP applications, and new services designed to help our customers cash in via new revenue offerings. For more info on our presence at MWC, check out our show announcement.

If you're interested in the 4G wireless market -- as well as Nortel's participation in it -- then today there were a variety of articles from different pubs that are worth a read. Here's a quick run-down:

• Light Reading has this article that summarizes various LTE vendors, including Nortel.

• Telecoms.com talks about how the time-to-market advantage that WiMAX once claimed over LTE is becoming less obvious.

• The Register has a really interesting take on which wireless technologies won't make it through the current economic crunch.

A new article this morning in wireless online publication Unstrung interviews Nortel's Richard Lowe on Nortel's continuing wireless and LTE ambitions:

"Our wireless asset remains a key part of our carrier customer base. We have a good position in CDMA; we're continuing to do business in GSM and UMTS core. But both businesses are relatively flat. Our intent is to continue to leverage our wireless installed bases and invest in LTE."

Lowe is of course the president of Nortel's carrier networks business, which includes our wireless/4g portfolio.

In the interview, Lowe talks about his ongoing efforts to find partnering opportunities in the LTE space to re-risk the overall investment:

Just a few hours ago Nortel issued this press release announcing that it is discontinuing its mobile WiMAX business. As part of this move, Nortel is ending its joint agreement with WiMAX vendor Alvarion that was originally announced last June.

Alvarion also issued a press release on the news, which you can see here.

Nortel's agreement with Alvarion allowed for the resale of Alvarion access products by Nortel, as well as Nortel's contribution of resources and funding to accelerate Alvarion's base station development.

AT&T calls LTE hands down the next generation of wireless technology, and expects their LTE deployment to be complete by 2011. That's just one snippet from the two-day conference LTE: Towards Mobile Broadband in Dallas that attracted several hundred decision makers, network architects, engineers, and planners that attended the event.

Hosted by ATIS and 3GPP, the conference focused on the migration path for mobile long term evolution (LTE), what it means for the industry and how LTE will affect operators, vendors and manufacturers in the Americas.

Nortel was well represented at the event with three session speakers, as well as having interviews with a variety of trade pubs at the show. This includes Dr. Vish Nandlall, Nortel's Carrier CTO, who presented to a packed room on whether LTE 'does what it says on the box.'

Before I get into the details about the WiMAX news, I wanted to take a second to introduce myself.

My name is Miranda MacDonald and I've been doing Media Relations here at Nortel for almost two years. Bo has trusted me with Buzzboard for the week while he enjoys Thanksgiving with his family. I'm Canadian and we've already had our Thanksgiving so I'll be here posting on Buzzboard and trying to suppress my envy for those of you on holiday this week. So coming to you live from the chilly north is a new voice from Nortel to talk about some of our news this week.

About a month ago, Bo pointed out an article on GigaOM that highlighted a report on the global WiMAX market. The study, conducted by TeleGeography Research, said that the number of commercial WiMAX networks worldwide jumped 82% in the last year - from 69 to 126 and that WiMAX was gaining ground in many areas outside the US, particularly India.

Nortel is bringing in customers from around the world for its annual Advanced Technology Summit (ATS), a month-long event that allows Nortel customers to see demonstrations of technologies and solutions from across Nortel's product lines.

Today on GigaOM, Stacey Higginbotham highlights a new report out on the global WiMAX market. The new study by TeleGeography Research says that the number of commercial WiMAX networks worldwide has jumped 82% in the last year -- from 69 to 126.  Stacey's post also has a really neat global map that shows the regional breakdown of those 126 deployments.  Take a look.

A few weeks ago, Nortel CTO John Roese joined other industry leaders at the GigaOM Mobilize conference in San Francisco.  I've already posted about the Q&A John had with Om Malik on-stage at the show.  But after that Q&A, John talked to GigaOM's Carolyn Pritchard for a video interview.