Nokia is to cut 1,800 jobs, with its Symbian Smartphones and Services lines of business taking the headcount reduction hit. The news came as the Finnish giant announced third-quarter revenues of nearly €10.3 billion (US$14.45 billion), a year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter improvement. (See Nokia Cuts Jobs and Nokia Reports Q3 .)

Despite the UK government's much-trumpeted Spending Review, details of which were finally made public Wednesday, it seems financial aid for broadband rollouts in rural areas is still in place, while plans were also announced to sell mobile broadband spectrum licenses. (See British Broadband Cash Survives Cuts.)

UK mobile operator Three UK will not be renewing its managed services contract with Ericsson when it expires in 2012, reports Global Telecoms Business. The news came to light during a court case centering on "exit provisions" relating to the contract.

UK broadband provider TalkTalk has signed a deal with Alcatel-Lucent, which will see the Franco-American vendor building a content delivery network for TalkTalk's planned expansion of its on-demand TV service. According to AlcaLu, the agreement "leverages the powerful technology" gained through its acquisition of Velocix. (See TalkTalk to Build CDN With AlcaLu and AlcaLu Buys CDN Specialist Velocix.)

Incumbent Telecom Italia has launched faster mobile broadband -- of the 21 Mbit/s variety -- to its subscribers in Rome and Milan, reports Reuters, but it's less keen to collaborate on a government-backed, fiber-based "common network project", according to the Wireless Federation website. Chief executive Franco Bernabe, he say, "no", apparently...

Prices slashed! France Telecom is to cut the prices of its landline calls, reports Dow Jones, with the connection charge dropping by a quarter and the peak price-per-minute rate down by slightly more than half.

And the Russians are at it too: The three biggest mobile operators in Russian and the CIS -- Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS) (NYSE: MBT), VimpelCom Ltd. (NYSE: VIP), and MegaFon -- are dropping their mobile roaming tariffs by up to 70 percent, reports Dow Jones. It seems they're getting their response in early, ahead of the results of an inquiry into what some considered excessive charges.

Magyar Telekom plc has been fined 200 million forints ($1 million) by Hungary's competition watchdog, reports Reuters. It's thought the fine relates to a premium-rate text message service operated last year.

Elsewhere in Europe:

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading