THE WRAP: EC dismisses need for NBN Co; DT settles ten-year fight

Robert Clark | December 17, 2010

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This week the EC ruled out an NBN-style approach to fiber rollout, and Deutsche Telekom won control of PTC.

Europe’s Digital Agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said current rules and guidelines were enough to drive next generation network rollouts, and ruled out the need for an NBN Co.

Deutsche Telekom settled a decade-long dispute with Vivendi over control of Poland’s number three cellco Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC).

European competition authorities cleared Nokia Siemens’ acquisition of Motorola’s networks business.

Indian regulator Trai called for the cancellation of 38 operator licenses and said it would investigate another 31.

Twitter raised another $200 million (€150 million) in a round that valued the company at $3.7 billion – nearly four times higher than its last round 15 months ago.

Ofcom said it wouldn’t change cost calculations for BT, barring the incumbent from raising wholesale fees to cover a €6 billion pension deficit.

Nokia capped a miserable year with the news that its flagship E7 device won’t be ready until after Christmas, and plans to cut 800 jobs in Finland.

Three UK swam against the tide by re-launching all-you-can-eat data.

Yahoo said it would shed 4% of its workforce - roughly 600 staff -while a leaked presentation showed the company also plans to shut services including Delicious and Upcoming.

Nokia Siemens and T-Mobile USA won backing from 3GPP for an HSPA+ upgrade that could deliver up 670 Mbps in bandwidth.

Chinese web firm Tencent out-ranked Apple to top Business Week’s list of best tech companies.

Apple, Oracle, EMC and other tech titans were a part of the Microsoft-led group that bought Novell’s patent portfolio last month.

France’s competition authority warned Google it could take action if the search firm abuses its dominant position in the market.

Huawei said it would invest a further $2 billion in R&D in India.

HTC and Samsung vied to make the first LTE smartphone.

IDC predicts mobile apps revenue will hit $35 billion by 2014.

Hackers broke into media group Gawker – the company behind Gizmodo and other titles – stealing more than a quarter of a million passwords, and announcing the feat on Gawker's own Twitter feed.

Time magazine editors named 26-year-old Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg as “Person of the Year,” while readers voted overwhelmingly for Julian Assange.

And in a historic ruling in a UK court, a magistrate allowed reporters covering the Assange hearing to send out tweets as long as they “did not disturb” proceedings.

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Robert Clark