Europe

Alcatel-Lucent has named ex-BT boss Ben Verwaayen as its new CEO and Philippe Camus as the company's new non-executive chairman from October 1 this year.

VimpelCom, Russia's second-largest mobile operator, has commercially launched its 3G network in four Russian cities this week and has vowed to switch on 3G in as many as 40 cities by year-end.

Russia's largest operator MTS said today it has signed a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in Russia, just days after rivals MegaFon and VimpelCom did the same, reports AP News.

Dutch operator KPN has connected 10,000 mobile TV subscribers to its network since the DVB-H service was introduced last June. Ten channels are available via three devices.

France's third-placed mobile operator, Bouygues Telecom, has confirmed reports in the French media that it has entered into an agreement with KPN that will see the Dutch operator launch in France as an MVNO.

France Telecom and Japan's NTT DoCoMo are reportedly leading the race to buy a stake in India's Wireless-TT Infoservices, the mobile towers business owned by Indian conglomerate Tata Group.

Reuters reports that Telecom Italia is working on securing a new investor, possibly from the Gulf, as well as splitting-off its fixed-line unit.