Fixed Mobile Convergence

Nokia Siemens Networks is seeking to boost its presence in Japan and North America. Now, with the purchase of Motorola’s mobile telecom network equipment business, the company will be well positioned to do just that.

A Reuters (News - Alert) report highlighted that the EU has granted regulatory approval for the purchase, said to be worth $1.2 billion. The acquisition is expected to help Nokia Siemens (News - Alert) Networks to better compete against specific rivals, such as Sweden's Ericsson, China's Huawei and France's Alcatel-Lucent.

The UE’s competition watchdog, the European Commission, found that the respective product portfolios actually had little overlap and that the Motorola (News - Alert) business being purchased had only a limited presence in the European Economic area.

The European Commission stated that they found the combined entity would continue to face a number of large and effective competitors. This is a critical point given that the market for mobile network equipment operates on a bidding basis. In other Nokia Siemens Networks (News - Alert) news, TMCnet reported that Afghanistan’s largest wireless and broadband service provider, Afghan Wireless Communication Company signed a contract with Nokia Siemens Networks.

Under the agreement, the global telecommunication giant will modernize and expand the operator’s 2.5G (GSM/GPRS) network and provide subscriber data management and charging and billing platforms. The initiative is expected to enable more people to access mobile services across the country.

Nokia Siemens Networks has also announced its Managed Transport Services that is designed to scale, manage and evolve transport to next generation technologies. The service enables efficient management of transport networks on behalf of operators and allows them to focus on their core business of providing new, high-quality services to subscribers.

The telecommunications giant has also signed an outsourcing agreement with Scandinavian IT services firm Tieto. The preliminary agreement focuses on outsourcing part of the device management software development related to base station products (System and Device Management) to Tieto.

Indian mobile operator Aircel selected Nokia Siemens Networks to supply, deploy and manage its HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access) enabled 3G network in three circles, which include Punjab, Kolkata and the rest of West Bengal. Nokia Siemens Network is already supplying and managing Aircel’s (News - Alert) GSM/EDGE network in six circles of India.