Euronews: FT Gets Its Flotation Ducks in a Row

France Télécom – Orange, Everything Everywhere Ltd. (EE), Google and Vivendi are all in the frame for today's snapshot of EMEA news.

France Télécom – Orange is busy lining up the money men for its planned part-flotation of U.K. mobile joint venture EE, reports the Financial Times (subscription required). According to the report, Morgan Stanley will be the lead bank, though Bank of America Merrill Lynch will also be involved. (See Euronews: EE Tests Waters on Flotation.)

On its home turf, France Télécom has been pushing ahead with its LTE rollout, reports Telecompaper (subscription required). Orange France, its mobile entity, now has LTE up and running in 15 French cities, and aims to have 1 million LTE users by the end of the year.

Google is lending its weight to an interesting broadband pilot in South Africa, which, if successful, will bring TV "white space" Internet to ten schools in the Cape Town area. Equipment vendor Carlson Wireless Technologies Inc. is Google's partner in the project. (See Google Joins Carlson for White Spaces Trial and Mommy, What's a White Space?.)

French conglomerate Vivendi has found a new boss for its SFR mobile unit: Jean-Yves Charlier, currently Vivendi's senior executive VP in charge of telecoms, will replace Stephane Roussel as CEO, who himself replaced Jean-Bernard Levy last summer. Since the arrival of Free Mobile on the domestic market, SFR has had a battle on its hands. (See Euronews: SFR Drags Vivendi Down.)

Telenor ASA has chosen Ericsson AB's Multiscreen TV platform for its Swedish TV customers. Telenor hopes to enhance its offer, bringing services such as catch-up TV on a range of screens and devices, as well as something called "companion screen interaction" with content for "advanced search and social activity." — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading