Belgian mobile operator Mobistar SA wants to move into fixed-line services, and to this end it has paid €600,000 ($813,000) each to cable operators Telenet and Brutélé-Tecteo as a contribution to the costs associated with the opening up of cable networks for wholesale access. In Mobistar's eyes, this gives Telenet and Brutélé-Tecteo six months to open up their networks. If they refuse to play ball, Mobistar is banking on Belgium's regulator to step in and do the necessary knuckle-rapping. See this Mobistar press release for more details.

Revenue assurance expert Subex Ltd. is trumpeting three contract wins in the EMEA region, without naming names. Together with a couple of wins in Asia-Pacific, these deals are worth $10 million, according to the purveyor of Service Provider Information Technology (SPIT) systems.

Telefónica Czech Republic A.S. is planning to lay off around a tenth of its workforce this year as part of a major restructuring operation, reports Reuters. The operator saw net profits fall by nearly a quarter year-on-year to $66.6 million in its third-quarter financials.

A clutch of bigwigs from the European broadcast and telecom industries have formed an advisory group to lobby the European Commission on matters relating to the future use of UHF spectrum for TV and mobile broadband. New Europe reports that the group will be led by Pascal Lamy, the former WTO director general.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading