Huawei has signed a five-year managed services deal with Russian giant VimpelCom, under the terms of which the Chinese vendor will take complete responsibility for the operator's fixed-line and mobile networks in Russia. As part of the contract, 1,300 VimpelCom employees will transfer to Huawei.The value of the deal was not disclosed. (See Huawei Manages VimpelCom Network.)

Huawei take two: Following on from his fireside chat with U.K. Prime Minister David "call me Dave" Cameron, Huawei CEO/founder Ren Zhengfei has been taking tea with the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy. According to a Huawei statement, the pair "discussed their views on the development of the economy and the ICT industry in both China and Europe." Ren probably got an easier ride than his colleagues did in front of the U.S. congressional hearing last week. (See Huawei, ZTE Get Grilled in US, Euronews: Huawei to Hire More Brits and Huawei Unveils UK Investment Plan.)

Telefónica is forming a partnership with Aurasma, the HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ)-owned "augmented reality" business, reports the Financial Times (subscription required), as it continues its quest to find innovative ways of broadening its range of revenue streams. (See Telefónica to Hatch Startups , Telefónica: A New Breed of Telco and Telefónica: Digital Dreamer?.)

Google has closed its Motorola Mobility LLC subsidiary in Spain in response to the dire state of the domestic market, according to this report (in Spanish) from the Portal TIC website. Last month Google announced that it was going to cut 4,000 jobs at the company it bought 13 months ago. (See Is Motorola Finally Dying? and Google to Cut 4,000 Motorola Jobs.)

Telecom Italia (TIM) 's CEO Marco Patuano is discussing possible "joint broadband projects" with state-backed financing company CDP, reports Reuters. Last week the Italian incumbent announced an FTTx collaboration with Fastweb SpA (Milan: FWB), the Swisscom AG (NYSE: SCM) subsidiary. (See T Italia, Fastweb Team Up on FTTX)

The ECOC Exhibition has opened its doors in Amsterdam, where the cream of Europe's optical community is gathering for three full days of component shenanigans. Look out for stories and pictures from the show floor to add to our pre-show coverage. (See ClariPhy, Acacia Grow Optical Chips at ECOC, Software-Defined Optical Networks and Oclaro Lines Up Against Finisar, JDSU.)

BT Global Services , the IT services arm of BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA), has replaced Jeff Kelly with Luis Alvarez as its CEO. Alvarez was most recently president of BT Global Services for the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America regions. Kelly is returning to the U.S. where he will act as a senior executive advisor to BT in a part-time capacity. (See BT Global Services Names CEO.)

On Friday we reported that staff at British Service Provider Information Technology (SPIT) specialist Tribold were embarking on a 200-mile bicycle ride in aid of two children's charities; today we can tell you that it is a case of mission accomplished. Jolly well done to the Tribold crew!



— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading