Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK), Synchronica plc and Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) top the bill in today's regional roundup.

Nokia is selling its Operator Branded Messaging business, which provides white-label messaging services to major North American mobile operators, to Synchronica in a deal valued at US$25 million. (See Synchronica Buys a Piece of Nokia and Synchronica to Buy Nokia Unit.)

Vodafone is hoping to bank a $5.5 billion dividend from its 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless , reports Bloomberg. You have to admire Vodafone's optimism!

Anite plc , the mobile network and handset test vendor, reports pre-tax profits up 62 percent year-on-year to £16 million ($25.6 million) in its fiscal full-year financials. Back in January Anite bolstered its capabilities in the LTE arena by acquiring the Invex wireless test and measurement line from CommScope Inc. 's Andrew division for an undisclosed sum. (See Anite Reports Fiscal Year, Anite Adds to Its LTE Arsenal.)

British cable operator Virgin Media Inc. (Nasdaq: VMED) has been rapped on the knuckles by the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority for its "Stop the broadband con" campaign, reports the BBC. The ads poured scorn on rivals' "up to" claims on broadband speeds, but the ASA believes they also implied dishonesty on the part of other ISPs, and that was a step too far. (See 'Up To' No Good and ISPs Shamed by UK Broadband Speed Tests.)

Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB; Frankfurt: BTLA) is deploying ROADM-based wizardry to build a new nationwide fiber network for Celeste , a French ISP. Designed to provide services to enterprise customers, the network will cover more than 4,000km and serve all the major cities in France. (See Tellabs Wins French Deal , Tellabs CEO Takes On Feisty Investor and Mobile Data's Doomsday Scenario.)

Research commissioned by mobile Web specialist Antenna Software Inc. has found that a quarter of all mobile Web users in the U.K. are using mobile banking services, most of them via websites rather than apps. However, nearly 70 percent of these same users have security concerns about mobile banking. (See Mobile Banking Suits 1 in 4 UK Smartphone Users, Future of Finance Rests on Network Security, Mobile Banking Reaches Rural India and Mobile Banking to Grow.)

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) has thrown in its lot with a range of other heavyweight organizations to help launch The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2011 edition, a wide-ranging survey of how innovation relates to prosperity in societies worldwide. Brownie points galore!

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading