Thursday marks the end of a very busy year of bankruptcy for Nortel, one that saw painful dismantling of the once mighty telecom giant and that leaves Avaya on the verge of revealing exactly what it plans to do with the enterprise VoIP and switching assets it bought.

One major reason why Nortel Networks Corp. filed for protection from its creditors in the U.S. and other countries today was to preserve $2.4 billion in cash, which the company plans to use to provide support and service its customers, Nortel's head of enterprise sales said Wednesday.

It's business as usual as Nortel seeks bankruptcy protection from creditors, according to the company's enterprise chief.

Nortel is attempting to put the brakes on its financial free fall by seeking bankruptcy protection in the United States, Canada and Europe.