Euronews: Nokia Sales Slump in Q4

Nokia reported fourth-quarter revenues of €10 billion (US$13.2 billion), down 21 percent from a year ago, and an operating loss of €954 million ($1.26 billion) compared with a profit of €884 million ($1.16 billion) a year ago. Full-year revenues were down 9 percent to €38.7 billion ($51 billion). But CEO Stephen Elop is bullish about Nokia's new range of Lumia phones, stating in the company's earnings press release that the Windows Phone devices were brought to market "ahead of schedule, demonstrating that we are changing the clock speed of Nokia." (See Nokia Ends 2011 on a Low, Euronews: Crunch Time for Nokia's Lumia, Euronews: Nokia Seals Symbian's Fate and Nokia Boss Declares War on Android.)

Still in Scandinavia... Former Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has become a director at Telia Company , the incumbent operator in Sweden and Finland. Kallasvuo was ousted as Nokia boss in September 2010, to be replaced by Stephen Elop, who was heading up Microsoft's Business Division at the time. (See Nokia Dumps CEO, Hires Elop and Euronews: Ex-Nokia Chief's €8M Paycheck.)

Comptel, the Finnish purveyor of Service Provider Information Technology (SPIT) systems, is to acquire analytics firm Xtract Ltd. for €3.1 million ($4.1 million). Xtract has 27 employees, around 20 customers and recorded net sales of €2.4 million ($3.1 million) in 2011. (See Comptel to Buy Xtract for €3.1M and Comptel Looks to Shift Up a Gear.)

Pan-European operator Interoute has expanded its cloud services offering with the launch of a Virtual Data Center service that, starting with access to three data centers in London, Amsterdam and Geneva, provides on-demand computing resources to enterprises connected to the carrier's extensive fiber network. (See Interoute Unveils Virtual Data Center and Euronews: Interoute Boasts 20% Growth.)

EE , the joint venture between Orange UK and T-Mobile (UK) , is extending its trial of LTE in the remote English county of Cornwall to the end of June 2012. The trial is being carried out in partnership with BT Wholesale , and is being trumpeted as U.K.'s first mobile and fixed-line broadband network collaboration. (See Everything Everywhere, BT Extend LTE Trial, Everything Everywhere Reports Q3 and Everything Everywhere Trials LTE in Cornwall.)

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading