Eurobites: Ericsson Bites Apple Over Patents

News Analysis Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe 2/27/2015

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Orange and Nokia team up for telco cloud; eircom revenues fall 4% in second quarter.

Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) is suing Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) for what the Swedish vendor says is Apple's infringement of 41 Ericsson-owned patents relating to 2G and 4G/LTE standards. Nine complaints have been filed in total, two with the International Trade Commission and seven in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. According to Ericsson, Apple had refused its earlier offer to have a court determine fair licensing terms by which both companies would be bound. (See Ericsson Sues Apple for Patents Infringement and Apple, Ericsson Clash on LTE Patents.)

Orange (NYSE: FTE) and Nokia Networks have teamed up for a "telco cloud partnership," and have achieved what they say is one of the first voice calls in a "fully virtualized IMS experimental environment." The proof of concept consists of Nokia IMS, Open TAS (Telecommunications Application Server) and Subscriber Data Management, as well as Nokia's ETSI-NFV compliant Cloud Application Manager. (See Orange Trials NFV With Nokia .)

Irish operator eir achieved fiscal second-quarter growth in broadband, mobile, TV and bundles but its fixed-line voice revenues continue to decline. Revenues fell 4% year-on-year to €316 million (US$354 million), while EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) fell 3% to €112 million ($125.6 million).

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading