Euronews: Nokia Eyeing InterDigital?Euronews: Nokia Eyeing InterDigital?

Nokia is one of several companies considering a bid for wireless specialist InterDigital, according to Reuters. The auction of InterDigital, which has a market value of around US$3 billion, is expected to happen in September. In other Nokia news: It may be putting its Symbian operating system quietly out to grass in due course, but it is still bothering to release updates -- the latest, out today and dubbed "Anna", offers, says Nokia, a new user interface, virtual QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode and stronger security, amongst other tweaks. (See Symbian 'Anna' Update Released, Nokia Kills Symbian in the States, Analyst: Nokia Faces Low-End Threat, Euronews: Nokia Seals Symbian's Fate and InterDigital Sues Nokia, Huawei, ZTE.)

The death of the PC, part 94: A Gartner Inc. study reveals that PC shipments (including laptops as well as desktops) in Western Europe in the second quarter of 2011 fell by 18.9 percent year-on-year. The laptop/notebook sector was hit particularly hard, with notebook shipments down a staggering 53 percent. Economic conditions in the region can't have helped, but the emergence of the tablet as the mainstream show-off device of choice is clearly a massive factor. (See Gartner: Euro PC Sales Slump 19% in Q2, Tablet Wars: iPad 2 vs Android 3.0 and iPad Envy: The Year in Tablets.)

Kabel Deutschland, the German cable giant, increased revenues 5.8 percent year-on-year to €412.1 million ($593.5 million) and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) by 9.8 percent to €193.4 million ($278.6 million) in its fiscal first quarter. Total RGUs (revenue-generating units) also rose in the quarter, by 596,000 to to 12.8 million. (See Kabel Deutschland Reports Fiscal Q1 and KDG Prices 100-Meg Wideband to Move .)

U.K. broadband provider TalkTalk and its subsidiary Tiscali have together been fined £3 million ($4.9 million) by regulator Ofcom for incorrectly billing thousands of customers for services they never received or wanted. It could have been a lot worse for TalkTalk though -- Ofcom has the power to impose a fine equating to 10 percent of turnover.(See Ofcom Fines TalkTalk £3M, Ofcom Reveals UK's Least Favorite Telcos, TalkTalk's Billing Mess Costs It £2.5M and Ofcom Warns TalkTalk, Tiscali.)

Now here's a funny thing: The southern English town of Basingstoke, famous for its roundabouts and U.K. base to Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , ST-Ericsson and Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), has emerged as one of the worst places to be in the country for broadband. According to a study by uSwitch.com, the average download speed there is 1.94 Mbit/s. Blazin'! (See UK's Broadband Blackspots Named.)

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading