BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) is to work with US-based Rancho BioSciences on providing cloud-based data curation services to life sciences companies and academic institutions. BT's Connection Science platform will be used to create what the company claims is a secure cloud infrastrucuture for the distribution of clinical data, case report forms and more.

Russian operator MegaFon is borrowing €150 million (US$165 million) from Unicredit Bank Austria to finance the purchase of equipment and services from Nokia Networks .

HERE, another branch on the Nokia tree, has formed what it's calling an Open Mobile Ticketing Alliance, which will look to develop standards that allow people to buy public transit tickets from a single app on their mobile devices in cities all over the world. Other founding members include transportation service providers Scheidt & Bachmann and Thales, and mobile payments provider Verifone Mobile Money.

Some interesting insights into the Finnish startup scene in a post-Nokia phone-making world are provided in this new YLE video, which features an interview with a former Nokia designer, Duncan Lamb. While acknowledging that the Finnish government's support of tech startups could reap rewards, he points out also that it can be a way of keeping "bad ideas" alive.

France's Canal+ Group has chosen Thomson Video Networks 's ViBE EM4000 HD/SD encoder to power the migration of its entire Canalsat satellite offering to an all-HD delivery infrastructure based on the H.264 codec.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading