Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: EE nears 2 million on 4G; Belgacom rolls out VDSL2; Telecom Italia invests in startups.
Is Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) planning to merge with Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR)? That's what's being reported on Reuters, which cites a German online publication. The thinking is that Juniper would be merged with Nokia Networks , thereby bolstering the latter's presence in the US. Nokia declined to comment on the report. (See NSN Braces for Tough Start to 2014 and Juniper CEO Preps New Roadmap.)
UK mobile joint venture EE saw its 4G customer total rise by 816,000 in the fourth quarter to reach just shy of 2 million. Despite this, turnover for the quarter and for the full year was down year-on-year, with full-year revenues down 2.6% to £6.48 billion (US$8.87 billion) and fourth-quarter revenues down 2%.(See Q&A: EE Evolves Its 4G LTE Strategy.)
Belgium's Belgacom SA (Euronext: BELG) has, with the help of Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), switched on what they believe to be to the world's first nationwide VDSL2 vectoring network. The operator can now offer broadband speeds of up to 70 Mbit/s over traditional copper lines. (See Belgacom Switches on Nationwide VDSL2 With AlcaLu .)
Telecom Italia (TIM) is planning to follow the lead of Telefónica SA (NYSE: TEF)'s Wayra program by making seed investments in digital startups. It has set aside €4.5 million ($6.1 million) over three years for such investments.
The European Commission has agree to hand over €20 million ($27.4 million) in payouts to 4,500 former Nokia staff in Finland who were made redundant following the vendor's downsizing of its handset-related operations, reports Finnish news website YLE. (See Euronews: Nokia's Fearful Finns.)
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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