Euronews: Sony Mobile Begins Exit From Sweden

Sony Mobile Communications AB , Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) and Spotify lend a Swedish flavor to today's jog through the EMEA telecom headlines.

Sony Mobile is laying off 650 employees at its mobile phone plant in Lund, Sweden, according to the Daily Telegraph. Earlier this month, Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) drastically revised downwards its operating profit forecast for the 2012/2013 financial year, and announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs by March 2013. (See Sony to Cut Up to 10,000 Jobs and Sony Builds Up Its 'Sonyness'.)

Ericsson has been chosen by Telekom Austria AG (NYSE: TKA; Vienna: TKA) to upgrade its 2G and 3G networks and provide LTE infrastructure for its mobile subsidiaries in Austria (A1) and Croatia (VIPnet ). Ericsson's RBS 6000 multi-standard base stations will underpin the project. (See Telekom Austria Upgrades With Ericsson.)

After having already made moves in the Netherlands and Austria, Carlos Slim is turning his attention to Poland, reports Reuters. Slim's América Móvil S.A. de C.V. is apparently one of four groups interested in a slice of HAWE SA , and is also looking at mobile operator P4. (See Euronews: Slim's Stealthy Expansion .)

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has teamed up with 21 other companies to launch the In-Location Alliance, which will seek to promote the deployment of location-based indoor services. Example: Incompetent shoppers could receive directions (on their smartphones) to the right products and relevant promotions in nearby shops. Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM), Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Samsung Corp. are among the other big names signing up to the project. (See Location-Based Services Alliance Formed.)

Spotify, the Sweden-based music streaming service, is finding it tough to persuade its subscribers to "upgrade" beyond the free service and actually shell out for their tunes. The Daily Telegraph reports that just 8 percent of Spotify's 30.2 million subscribers were paying customers by the end of 2011. Perhaps they need to make those adverts on the free service even more annoying. (See Spotify Hits US 3G Networks.)

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading