Nortel to cancel room reservations at Las Vegas CTIA Wireless show

Nortel is asking bankruptcy court to help it back out of rooms it booked for a trade show in Las Vegas just weeks before filing for bankruptcy that include a suite with double Jacuzzi and flat screen TVs in the bedroom, bathroom and living room.

The company says in court filings that it booked too many rooms at Caesar's Palace and didn't get a good enough rate when it signed on for 180 rooms for the CTIA Wireless 2009 show, which is scheduled for April.

Now Nortel wants to trim that back to 60 rooms, according to published reports.

While the Palace Tower Senators suite costs $2,300 a night, most of the rooms cost $219, but even that is too high for current rates, the court filing says. The company wants to renegotiate its contract for just the number of rooms it needs.

The rooms were booked during December, the same month the company issued a press release that the New York Stock Exchange was warning about delisting Nortel stock because it had fallen below $1 per share. That was the same period during which the company was weighing bankruptcy.

Since the filing in January, the company has taken drastic steps to save money including cutting bonuses, announcing more layoffs and angling for a purchaser of its layer 4 to 7 switches.