Nortel is in discussions to sell off some major assets that could affect about 1,400 Ottawa workers, according to new reports.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting Nokia Siemens Networks, has offered to buy segments that would help the company expand into the North American mobile market.

One bid is for parts of Nortel's Carrier Networks group, which is Nortel's largest single business unit. The other bid is for LTE wireless technology -- the next generation of high-speed wireless technology to deliver services such as phone, Internet, video and text.

CTV Ottawa is told about 1,400 people in Ottawa work for Carrier Networks, which has a centre of excellence in Carrier research located in the capital.

All Nortel will say is that "many" people work on LTE in Ottawa, but there are also some employees in Asia and the U.S.

Representatives from Nokia Siemens declined to comment.

It is unknown exactly what parts of Carrier the company wants to buy and what would happen to Nortel staff.

Nokia already has an office in Ottawa after it acquired a local tech firm several years ago.

Just last summer, Nortel was bragging that researchers in Ottawa had accomplished a world-first by using LTE technology while travelling on roadways around the Nortel labs.

Since then, Nortel has been showing off the technology at trade shows and has started field trials in Europe and the U.S.

In January, Nortel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. federal court and for creditor protection in Ontario court.

In February, CEO Mike Zafirovski told CTV Ottawa he was hoping to have a business plan to deal with the company's financial trouble in place by May.

If Nortel does sell any of its business units they are required to make such deals public immediately to inform shareholders, the public and creditors.

Although there have been multiple reports of talks and proposals, only one sale has taken place -- $17 million for some technology out of a California Nortel office.

The Journal also reports that an auction of Nortel's enterprise unit was held just last week, attracting bids from Avaya Inc. and Siemens Enterprise Communications.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Paul Brent