Euronews: Spanish Spectrum for Orange & Yoigo

Well, the Great Spanish Spectrum Sell-Off turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, as only two bidders entered the fray, namely Yoigo (owned by TeliaSonera) and Orange, reports Reuters. The former was awarded a block of 1800MHz bandwidth, the latter a chunk of 900MHz action. (See Euronews: Deutsche Telekom Looks East.)

The BBC reports that President Sarkozy of France is hosting a two-day talking-shop on the future regulation -- or non-regulation -- of the Internet, just ahead of the G8 summit later this week. Bigwigs from Google, Facebook and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) will be there, so perhaps this one matters more than most. (See Net Neutrality: EU vs. US.)

Splendidly named Irish Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte used the Management World conference in Dublin to announce that the second, trial, phase of the Irish government's Exemplar project is ready to roll. The "Smart Communications" program will investigate the potential of Optical Packet Switching and Transport (OPST) technology developed by Irish company Intune Networks . (See Exemplar Trial Network Unveiled.)

Meanwhile, in Egypt, the new government is contemplating not issuing a fourth mobile license after all, reports Bloomberg. The political upheavals have made it not seem such a good idea from an economic point of view, said the country's communications minister. (See Pyramid: Egypt's Instability Threatens Telecom Development and Euronews: April 15.)

A tightening of U.K. government spending has not stopped specialist service provider Cable & Wireless Worldwide plc (London: CW) from recording a 2.6 percent increase in EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) in its full-year results, despite revenues being down slightly at £2.25 billion (US$3.63 billion). (See C&W Worldwide Reports Full Year, C&W Worldwide Wins Babcock Deal and Mixed EuroFortunes.)

The date has been set for the launch of the first of two satellites in the Galileo series that will support Europe's global navigation system: It's Oct. 20, and blast-off will be from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. (See Galileo Satellite Launch Set for October.)

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading