Euronews: Vodafone Thinks Bundles

Vodafone Group plc, Deutsche Telekom AG, Telecom Italia SpA and Nokia Corp. proffer something for the weekend in today's EMEA news corral.

Is Vodafone about to branch out into bundles? A report on Reuters says that the U.K.-based mobile giant is in talks with Deutsche Telekom about a potential wholesale deal that would enable it to offer its German customers super-fast broadband and a TV service, on top of its traditional mobile offering.

Telecom Italia's bigwigs are sitting down next week to discuss some potential M&A action in the mobile sphere, according to a Bloomberg report. One option on the table is a merger with Hutchison Whampoa's H3G Italy unit.

Nokia has closed its flagship store in Shanghai, reports Reuters, as it shifts away from its own bricks-and-mortar retail presence and towards selling its phones through carriers and retail partners.

A trial conducted in the U.K. has found that TV interference from 4G signals is not as bad as feared, reports the Daily Telegraph. Only 15 households, out of a sample of 22,000 taking part in the trial in the West Midlands region, found disruption to their viewing pleasure from a dummy 4G mast that had been planted in the area.

Tele2 AB has confirmed that it has sold its Russian unit to VTB, a Russian bank, in a deal worth 27 billion Swedish kroner (US$4.1 billion).

"Excuse me miss, do you have that tweet by Ray Le Maistre about SPIT from March 6, 2013?" "Certainly, sir, it's in aisle G, just behind the vegan cookery section." Such an exchange is almost bound to take place now that a plan to store millions of tweets, Facebook piffle and website pages in the British Library and four other "legal deposit libraries" in the U.K. has been hatched. — Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading