Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia Technologies cuts jobs; Orange under competition scrutiny in France; AlcaLu sells optical plant.
UK quad-play provider TalkTalk has raised its revenue forecast through to 2017 and beyond following encouraging preliminary results for the year to March 2015. Revenue was up 4.2% on the previous year, to £1.8 billion ($2.8 billion), while EBITDA rose 15%, to £245 million ($387 million). The company notched up 47,000 net subscriber additions in voice and broadband, 83,000 net fiber additions, 66,000 net mobile additions and 82,000 net TV additions. TalkTalk TV has become the third-largest such platform in the UK, with 1.4 million customers. In the light of all this, TalkTalk has upgraded its revenue CAGR (compound annual growth rate) forecast to 5% to full-year 2017. Meanwhile, TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding is still pushing for what she calls "a more level playing field" in the UK broadband market, reiterating in an interview with the BBC that Openreach , BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA)'s wholesale access arm, should be independent of the incumbent.
The champagne has gone a bit flat at Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK): Just a day or so after the vendor celebrated its 150th birthday with celebrations across its various sites, it has announced further job cuts. According to Reuters, up to 70 positions are going at its Technologies division in Finland.
France's competition authority has confirmed that it is looking into aspects of Orange (NYSE: FTE)'s enterprise business, reports Reuters. Some French media reports have claimed that Orange could face fines totaling hundreds of millions of euros for breaking competition rules.
Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is selling its optical transport manufacturing plant in Trieste, Italy to Flex (Nasdaq: FLEX). The plant will continue to supply AlcaLu once the deal is complete. Financial details of the sale were not disclosed.
Israel's largest mobile operator, Cellcom Israel Ltd. , has posted a 77% year-on-year drop in first-quarter net profits, to 26 million shekels ($6.8 million). Cellcom largely attributes the fall to the one-time expense of a voluntary retirement program, though it also lost 82,000 subscribers in the quarter.
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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