Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Court upholds EU decision on Microsoft/Skype deal; Vodafone tests LTE-Advanced in Madrid; Keymile buys into smart grids.
Spanish cable operator ONO is lining up a potential IPO in the first half of 2014, according to this Reuters report. If the company does join the public markets it will follow in the footsteps of its French neighbor Numericable-SFR , which listed in early November. (See IPO Action: Mavenir, Numericable.)
A European court has rejected a challenge from Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) to Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s takeover of Skype in 2011, upholding an earlier decision by European Union regulators, reports Reuters. Cisco, which joined forces with Italian Skype rival Messagenet to launch this latest legal challenge, had originally argued that Microsoft should be forced to conform to open standards that would allow Skype to work with other teleconferencing products, not least its own. (See Cisco Had a Shot at Skype and Cisco Challenges Microsoft/Skype Deal.)
Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) has begun testing LTE-Advanced services in Madrid, specifically the Azca and Nuevos Ministerios districts of the city, reports the Elotrolado website (in Spanish). The operator says that the pilot to date has achieved sustained downlink speeds of 280 Mbit/s, occasionally hitting 297 Mbit/s.
German fixed access infrastructure vendor Keymile AG has acquired HYTEC Gerätebau GmbH, a specialist in "process-data communication, especially data communication in telecontrol and automation engineering." The deal, for which financial details were not revealed, will enhance Keymile's prospects with energy utility firms, especially those looking to build out smart grids. For more details of the product lines Keymile will gain through the deal, see this press release.
French operator Bouygues Telecom is hoping to soup up the IPTV experience for its video subscribers by deploying Broadpeak 's BkE100 Live RTP retry servers to address the issue of visual defects caused by packet loss in its set-top boxes. When packet loss is detected, the set-top box requests a retransmission of the missing packets, which, says the vendor, are recovered before the decoding process begins. (See Bouygues Telecom Picks Broadpeak BkE100 Servers.)
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK)'s long-drawn-out wrangle with the tax authorities in India has taken another twist, with a government lawyer saying that Nokia's tax bill there could increase to 210 billion rupees ($3.4 billion) if penalties and interest are added to the bill, reports Bloomberg. Nokia has already had some of its Indian assets frozen, including its plant in Chennai.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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