Euronews: Digital Agenda Scores Are In!

The European Commission , Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT), BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) and ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763) make it big in today's EMEA regional roundup.

The European Commission has published a "Digital Agenda Scoreboard," which it hopes will give an overview of how much progress has been made in the various EU member states on the implementation of the pan-European vision of a super-fast broadband-driven utopia for all. It's chock-full of fascinating snippets such as: "Some 75% of Belgians use the Internet at least once a week." Drop that into your next stalled party conversation. (See EC Publishes Digital Agenda Scoreboard and Europe's Broadband Challenge.)

Deutsche Telekom has launched Long Term Evolution (LTE) services in Cologne, making it the first operator to offer the mobile broadband services in a German city. Up to now, German operators have focused on rolling out LTE in rural areas where there is little or no broadband access. The service costs €74.95 (US$108) a month and the first device available is a USB stick.

U.K. incumbent BT and Chinese vendor ZTE have formed a new research partnership to, as they put it, "explore the next generation of fixed line, wireless and mobile telecommunications services." It is, say the companies, the first such collaboration between the two. (See BT, ZTE Team in Research Partnership.)

ZTE has also been busy further east, in Belarus, where it has won the contract to build a GPON-based national broadband network for carrier Beltelecom . Belarus has a population of around 10 million. (See ZTE Wins GPON Deal in Belarus.)

First-quarter financials at Russian mobile operator VimpelCom Ltd. (NYSE: VIP) reveal net profits are up 55 percent year-on-year to $590 million. In April VimpelCom completed its long-drawn-out acquisition of Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA , despite the misgivings of Telenor Group (Nasdaq: TELN). (See VimpelCom Reports Q1, Euronews: Jan. 17 and Euronews: Oct. 11.)

Recent upheavals in Egypt and their economic effects have understandably hit carrier Telecom Egypt , which has recorded a 10 percent drop in net profits in its first-quarter financials, reports Reuters. (See Egypt Unplugs From the Internet.)

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading