A series of Service Provider Information Technology (SPIT) acquisitions during the past decade, most notably the US$1.15 billion purchase of Telcordia, has helped Ericsson become a major player in telecom IT services, but it's not quite in the leading pack just yet, according to a recent market report from Gartner Inc. The Swedish giant, which has been aggressively targeting telecom IT services deals in the past year or so, has been classified as a "challenger" in Gartner's most recent "IT Services for Communications Service Providers" Magic Quadrant report, which means it has, according to the research firm, the "ability to execute" but not yet a "completeness of vision." According to Gartner's criteria, a company requires both attributes to be a market "leader," a status afforded to Accenture in this particular report (see this Accenture press release for more). Ericsson, which has 12,000 staff in its consulting and systems integration team, identifies the acquisitions of InCode, Bizitek, HyC and Teleca OSS as noteworthy stepping stones to becoming a significant SPIT services player. (See Ericsson to Buy Telcordia, Say Goodbye to Telcordia, Ericsson Buys North American Integrator, Ericsson Buys Turkish Integrator, Ericsson Invests in IPTV Smarts and Ericsson Acquires Teleca OSS.)

The scandal surrounding HP's accusations of dodgy accounting methods against Autonomy's management looks set to roll on and on, with former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch denying any illegal practices and criticizing HP for mismanaging the enterprise information management software specialist since last year's $10.2 billion acquisition, reports the Daily Telegraph. But has the storm over Autonomy's alleged bookkeeping practices provided a smokescreen for bigger problems at HP? That's an angle examined in this Guardian article. (See HP Claims Fraud by Autonomy Team.)

Smartphones are set to account for 84 percent of all mobile handsets sold in the U.K. by 2017, up from 59 percent in 2012, according to a new market forecast from Pyramid Research . The study, entitled UK: Fiber Deployment and Launch of 4G/LTE Boost Broadband, also predicts there will be 22.2 million 4G users in Britain by 2017. The U.K.'s first 4G services were launched in late October. (See Euronews: 4G Arrives in UK and How Not to Do 4G, EE-Style.)

Hutchison 3G Austria GmbH 's proposed takeover of Orange Austria Telecommunication GmbH. is set to get the green light from the European Commission , according to a Reuters report that cites Austria's Kurier newspaper. As a condition of the deal, Hutchison had to agree to give up spectrum if a new operator wanted to enter the market. (See EC Looks Again at Orange Austria Takeover.)

South African operator Vodacom Pty. Ltd. is to provide voice services as part of its 4G offering using Circuit-Switch Fallback (CSFB) capabilities provided by Nokia Networks , which is also supplying LTE network infrastructure to the carrier.

The CEO of Orange Spain , Jean Marc Vignolles, has been telling Bloomberg that its policy of continuing to subsidize handset sales in the cash-strapped country is paying dividends, with the Orange (NYSE: FTE) subsidiary increasing market share at the expense of its rivals Vodafone España S.A. and Telefónica SA (NYSE: TEF), which had earlier decided to abandon such subsidies. (See Euronews: Tide Turns Against Handset Subsidies and Do Big Subsidies Have Big Staying Power?)

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has completed the acquisition of earthmine, the 3-D mapping specialist that the handset giant hopes will accentuate its strengths in the location-related apps sphere of activity. The terms of the deal are confidential. (See Euronews: Nokia Buys 3-D Specialist Nokia Points Way Forward on Mapping.)

Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) is preparing to launch its own over-the-top (OTT) TV and video services in 2013, according to this Broadcast Engineering article.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading