Euronews: AlcaLu Notches Another 100G Win

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), ST-Ericsson and KPN Telecom NV (NYSE: KPN) get up to stuff in today's trip through the EMEA telecom headlines.

Austrian mobile operator Hutchison 3G Austria GmbH (H3G Austria) is to deploy AlcaLu's 100 Gbit/s coherent gear -- the vendor's 1830 Photonic Service Switch and 1626 Light Manager -- to boost the capacity of its backbone as mobile data volumes ramp up. H3G Austria, which announced a controversial LTE network deal with ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763) a year ago, has also announced it will use HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ)'s Home Subscriber Server (HSS) to implement its LTE subscriber data management plans. (See H3G Deploys AlcaLu's 100G, H3G Deploys HP's HSS for LTE and MWC 2011: 3G Austria Dumps NSN for ZTE.)

Wireless-chip joint venture ST-Ericsson recorded a US$231 million loss in its fourth quarter, which was $54 million worse than in the same period a year ago. First-quarter seasonality and what the vendor describes as a short-term reduction in orders from one of its largest customers were among the factors blamed. (See ST-Ericsson Loses $231M in Q4, Euronews: ST-Ericsson Appoints New CEO and Euronews: ST-Ericsson Cuts, Huawei Eyes a Buy.)

In the wake of its fourth-quarter performance -- which saw EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) slip 3.2 percent year on year -- Dutch incumbent KPN has lowered its profit outlook for 2012, reflecting its expectation that this will be a "transition year." Separately, KPN is selling services company Getronics International to industrial holdings firm Aurelius for an undisclosed sum. (See KPN Lowers 2012 Profit Outlook, KPN to Sell Getronics International IT Biz, KPN Focuses on FTTH and KPN Preps 500Mbit/s FTTH.)

The European Commission is proposing new rules that will give Internet users more control over data relating to them on social networks and the like, according to the Wall Street Journal. Details of the proposals -- being dubbed "the right to be forgotten" in some quarters -- were unveiled by Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich. The idea is make it easier for those who have been indiscreet or just plain daft in online view of the whole world to cover their tracks. Spoilsports.

Last week AlcaLu was touting its role in Bezeq's new "Jonah" subsea link between Europe and Israel, and now it's the turn of Interoute to let everyone know that it's been chosen to handle the European end of things. Interoute's landing station at Bari in Italy will extend the network into the heart of Europe. (See Bezeq Picks Interoute and Bezeq Lights Subsea Cable.)

French operator Bouygues Telecom has teamed up with Playcast Media Systems to launch Bbox games, a cloud gaming service that will, says the operator, allow triple-play subscribers to play console-quality video games on their TVs without additional hardware. (See Bouygues Launches Console-Quality IPTV Gaming.)

Good news for mobile users who wander around the various Gulf states: Operators there are set to slash their roaming charges by at least 50 percent, according to an Arabian Business report.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading