Euronews: BT Claims Wi-Fi Gold

BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA), Tele2 AB (Nasdaq: TLTO), Rostelecom and Telecom Italia (TIM) lead the way in today's charge through the EMEA telecom headlines.

BT is patting itself on the back for achieving its goal of having half a million Wi-Fi hotspots in place in time for the London 2012 Olympics. Its latest spots are to be found along 27 miles of the River Thames, as well as on the Olympic Park itself. Just the ticket for sharing blurry pics of Wiggo in all his sideburned splendor, or keeping up with all the latest on shuttlecockgate. (See BT Has 500k Wi-Fi Hotspots in London and Carrier Wi-Fi Is Hot .)

Nordic operator Tele2 is having discussions with Russia's Rostelecom about a possible merger of their respective Russian mobile businesses, reports Reuters, citing the Kommersant newspaper. Tele2 and Rostelecom are respectively Russia's fourth- and fifth-biggest mobile operators, with more than 34 million subscribers between them.

A recession at home and a slowdown in Latin America notwithstanding, Telecom Italia returned to profit in the first half of 2012, posting net income of €1.24 billion (US$1.52 billion), compared with a net loss of €2.04 billion ($2.50 billion) in the first half of 2011. (See T Italia Ups H1 Profits to €1.25B and Euronews: Telecom Italia Boss Thinks Positive.)

Portugal Telecom SGPS SA (NYSE: PT), also struggling in the face of domestic economic woe, saw its second-quarter profit fall 17 percent year-on-year to €69 million. According to Reuters, however, this still surpassed market expectations. (See Glimmers of Hope for PT.)

In a report looking into potential anti-competitive issues with Sky 's pay-TV service, the U.K. Competition Commission has reached the perhaps surprising conclusion that pay-TV subscribers aren't that bothered about how quickly movies make it onto their chosen service. The Commission found that "more consumers attach importance to other service attributes, like having access to a broad range of content and to price, than they do to seeing recent movie content," and has decided it therefore has no beef with BSkyB.

Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG , the German test and measurement firm, has introduced a software option that allows LTE-Advanced equipment using MIMO technology to be tested in the uplink.

Britain's bosses are taking a tough line on their employees streaming Olympics action to their work PCs -- not because the wage slaves are unashamedly skiving but because they are using up precious corporate bandwidth, reports the Daily Telegraph.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading