Euronews: Nokia Sells Patents

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), EE and Iliad (Euronext: ILD) get their names checked in today's trot through the EMEA telecom headlines.

Nokia has sold more than 450 patents -- most of them relating to wireless technologies -- to Sisvel SpA , an Italian company specializing in managing and extracting the most value from patent portfolios. (See Sisvel Buys Nokia Patents, Intellectual Property Boom, Nokia Files Against Apple -- Again! and Making Sense of the Handset Patent Plays.)

Everything Everywhere, the joint venture between Orange UK and T-Mobile (UK) , has expressed its displeasure at Ofcom's latest pronouncements on the distribution of U.K. Long Term Evolution (LTE) spectrum, reports the Daily Telegraph. The operator is peeved that the regulator has changed its mind about guaranteeing it a minimum amount of 800MHz spectrum. Could legal action be on the cards? Will the U.K.'s 4G auction ever take place? Watch this space. (See Ofcom Tweaks LTE Spectrum Proposals, Everything Everywhere Shrinks in Q2 and CEO Quits Everything Everywhere.)

The entry of Iliad into the French mobile market is certainly making an impact: One rival, SFR , has cut its prices, while anouther, Bouygues Telecom , is planning to follow suit next week, reports Reuters. (See Iliad Disrupts the French Mobile Scene .)

The long-running dispute between Denmark's TDC A/S (Copenhagen: TDC) and Poland's Telekomunikacja Polska SA has finally been settled, with the Danes set to receive around 1 billion Danish Krone (US$172 million) for their troubles. The dispute centered on the determination of traffic volumes running over the Polish NSL network, which governed how large a share of net profits the Danish firm received. (See TPSA to Contest Court Ruling.)

Bahrain Telecommunications Co. (Batelco) , the state-controlled Bahraini operator, has agreed to reinstate a number of workers it sacked following strikes related to the ongoing pro-democracy protests, reports Arabian Business. More than 2,000 (mainly Shi'ite) workers were sacked from state-run companies in 2011 as a result of similar protests.

Tapas and go… Barcelona has been chosen by Spanish bank La Caixa for the rollout of a Near-Field Communications (NFC) program that will see the distribution of around 1 million "tap and go" contactless payment cards and 17,000 special terminals for participating retailers. It's just cards at the moment, but in theory the technology could be on Barcelonians' mobile phones before too long.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading