Nokia is in talks to sell its Vertu "luxury" (translation: "more money than sense") handset subsidiary to private equity group Permira, reports the Financial Times. The newspaper suggests the sale could be worth around €200 million (US$264 million) to the beleaguered Finnish giant.
(See The Vertu Vanishes and Paltrow's Massive Wedge.)
Deutsche Telekom has agreed a pay increase equivalent to 6.5 percent over three years for the 17,000 staff at its Bonn headquarters, reports Reuters.
Everything Everywhere, the joint venture between Orange UK and T-Mobile (UK), has launched a "4G Britain" campaign that it says is to "raise awareness about 4G and its potential benefits for consumers and the economy." Its rivals, however, according to The Guardian at least, claim the campaign is no more than a lobbying vehicle for the joint venture's plan to steal a march on competitors by winning regulator approval for freeing up existing spectrum for Long Term Evolution (LTE) rather than waiting for the U.K.'s much-delayed 4G auction to get underway. (See A 4G Pig's Ear and Britain's Bloomin' LTE .)
The European Commission has launched a public consultation on ways to reduce the cost of fiber rollouts -- and in particular the cost of the associated civil engineering works such as digging up the roads prior to laying fiber. The Commission points out that such costs can account for as much as 80 percent of the total bill for fiber rollouts. (See EC Opens FTTH Consultation and Brakes Stuck on Europe's FTTH Ride.)
Also emanating from Brussels is an expression of displeasure at the decision of the Polish telecom regulator UKE to allow the incumbent, Telekomunikacja Polska SA, to give alternative operators only limited access to its future fiber-based networks. The Commission has suspended the regulator's plans and begun a three-month investigation into the matter. It's not the first time the Polish regulator has found itself in hot water with Neelie Kroes et al. (See EC Tackles Poland Over FTTH and EC Challenges Poland's Mobile Termination Rate Rules.)
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