Europe

Financial Times reports that some of Europe's largest operators - including Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia and Vodafone - have stepped up resistance to the European Commission's plans to reduce wholesale charges by suggesting mobile penetration rates could drop by 9 percent if the measures are implemented.

Ericsson and Dutch operator KPN have signed a contract for hosted mobile advertising. In May of this year KPN commercially launched mobile advertising services.

Arcep, the French regulator, has published the results of a public consultation into the award of the country's fourth 3G license raising hopes that the long-awaited tender for the new license could be underway soon.

Italian press reports are suggesting that Telecom Italia could make a surprise bid for the pan-African mobile operator MTN, says TeleGeography.

EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding has confirmed plans to impose price caps on SMS and data roaming within the EU, a move criticised by many European mobile operators.

Telecom Italia is considering selling a 10 percent equity stake to the Libyan Investment Authority, notes MarketWatch, citing a report from Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

The European Parliament formally adopted a range of new telecoms measures yesterday but significantly watered down plans to create an EU-wide 'super regulator' that would have power to overrule national regulators, reports Reuters.