Euronews: Jan. 5

Nokia Networks , Svyazinvest , Portugal Telecom SGPS SA (NYSE: PT) and Orange France strut their stuff in today's roundup of Euro telecom news headlines.

A new report from financial analysis firm Fitch Ratings Ltd. says that revenue growth opportunities for infrastructure vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) look limited in Europe in 2011, though non-traditional manufacturers of mobile devices could be set to make hay as smart phone takeup in developing countries rockets. Overall, Fitch concludes, the outlook for the European technology sector in 2011 is "stable." (See Fitch Sees Stable Euro Tech Sector.)

NSN has completed its acquisition of IRIS Telecommunication and Engineering Services Inc. , which has its headquarters in Istanbul and carrier customers across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. IRIS will continue to function as a separate legal entity. (See NSN Completes IRIS Acquisition and NSN Buys Turkish Services Firm.)

State-owned Russian tongue-twister Svyazinvest has been given the go-ahead by the country's competition authority to acquire a 99.9 percent stake in mobile operator Mobitel, reports TeleGeography. (See Euronews: Dec. 8.)

Portugal Telecom has sold its 30 percent stake in Universo Online, a Brazilian Internet portal, for US$210 million, reports Global Telecoms Business.

Zut alors! Some of Orange's customers in France enjoyed a less-than-happy new year on discovering they'd been billed for hundreds of duplicate text messages sent as the arrival of 2011 was being celebrated across the land, reports The Connexion, citing Le Parisien. The operator has now agreed to refund those customers who were affected by the system malfunction.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading