Euronews: France Grills Google

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Nokia Networks and Orange (NYSE: FTE) are in the mix for today's helping of EMEA telecom headlines.

CNIL, the French data protection authority, is giving Google a bit of a grilling over its new privacy policy, reports Bloomberg. CNIL handed the search giant a list of 69 questions relating to its new privacy policy, under the terms of which Google plans to share data on users' preferences across several of its services. (See Marketers Slam Apple's Privacy Invasion .)

Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) has turned to Nokia Siemens Networks for the extension of its Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex (LTE TDD) network and the upgrade of its GSM and 3G networks. NSN says it will now be responsible for building about a third of STC's nationwide 4G tentacles. Separately, NSN has signed a partnership agreement with Atigeo, a U.S.-based customer experience management specialist. (See STC to Expand LTE With NSN , NSN Partners With Atigeo, NSN Hangs Its Future on the Liquid Net and NSN Dives Into Liquid Net .)

OP Ventures, the venture capital fund formed by France Telecom, Publicis and Iris Capital Management, has invested US$15 million in MyThings, an Israeli mobile advertising company, reports Telecompaper (subscription required), citing Les Echos. Accel Partners , Carmel Ventures and T-Ventures were also involved in the funding round. (See NSN Dives Into Liquid Net .)

The Czech government is hoping to raise at least 9.2 billion crowns ($494 million) from its auction of 4G-friendly spectrum, reports Reuters. Telefónica O2 Czech Republic , T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s. and Vodafone Czech Republic a.s. rule the mobile roost in the central European country. (See Pyramid: Mobile Data Drives Czech Revival.)

Finnish IT services firm Tieto Corp. announced plans to cut 1,300 jobs in Finland, Sweden and other countries as part of a restructuring program aimed at achieving annualized net savings of €50 million (US$66 million) by 2014. Tieto recently took on 240 employees from NSN in an outsourcing contract for mobile network OSS R&D. (See NSN Outsources Some OSS R&D to Tieto.)

Friends Reunited, the original but thought-to-be extinct U.K. social network, is to be relaunched as a place for "collecting and keeping memories," according to the Daily Telegraph. Friends Reunited, which gained notoriety for rekindling schooldays romances and consquently causing hundreds of divorces, was started by a husband-and-wife team in 2000, got bought by U.K. broadcaster ITV for £175 million ($277 million) which sold it two years later to Brightsolid for just £25 million ($39 million).

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading