Austria's BWB competition authority said on Friday it would not appeal against Telekom Austria's acquisition of Orange's budget mobile brand Yesss, clearing the way for a wider consolidation of the country's telecom market.

The decision by the BWB, which had signaled it might appeal and said it still had concerns, frees Hutchison Whampoa (Hong Kong) to buy Orange Austria in a 1.3 billion euro ($1.7 billion) deal that was conditional on the Yesss sale.

Spain's antitrust body said it fined telecoms companies Telefonica, Vodafone and France Telecom's Orange a record 120 million euros ($159 million) for charging too much for text messages.

The regulator said on Thursday Spain's three biggest mobile operators had exploited their dominant position between 2000 and 2009 and passed on overpriced services termination rates to consumers with high charges for text messages.

Ericsson is taking a $1.2 billion charge in a bid to write off its exposure to ST-Ericsson, adding to doubts over the future of the loss-making joint venture after partner STMicroelectronics said it was pulling out.

Ericsson (Stockholm, Sweden), the world's biggest equipment maker for mobile telecom networks, said on Thursday it would take the 8 billion Swedish crown hit in its fiscal fourth quarter in a move set to plunge it into a net loss for the three month period.

EU cyber security agency ENISA has urged authorities and stakeholders to co-ordinate their effort to improve smart-grid security, but recommended greater “freedom” than regulators have allowed in the US.

In a new report investigating the cyber-security challenges for smart grids in Europe, ENISA has proposed a number of security measures that could be “tailored and combined for the needs of different actors, given the varied market”.

As ENISA points out, that is in marked contrast to the “strict regulatory path” laid out in the US.

Telit has announced it will supply modules to Digicom, a network-technology specialist, in a deal designed to strengthen the M2M player’s presence in the burgeoning smart-metering industry.

The modules are to be integrated with Digicom’s (Cardano al Campo, Italy) TLOG system – a meter-reading device for the gas, LPG and water industries.

TLOG measures consumption pulses from meters and sends the data via SMS or GSM/GPRS, TCP/IP technology.

The French government is concerned about Alcatel-Lucent's plan to use patents as collateral for a 1.6 billion euro ($2.1 billion) loan because the intellectual property could fall into the hands of foreign banks, Les Echos newspaper reported.

On Friday, the loss-making telecom equipment maker said it had agreed an asset-backed loan from Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs to help it deal with upcoming debt maturities and fund its ongoing restructuring.

Belgian cable company Telenet remains opposed to a takeover bid from majority owner Liberty Global (LGI), with independent directors saying the offer price of €35 ($47) per share is too low.

In a statement quoted by Dow Jones Newswires, Telenet’s directors said “the current offer does not sufficiently reflect the value of the company and its prospects”. The statement went on to say the directors “would consider recommending an offer from LGI if it were made at a price between €39 and €40”.

The European Union may force companies operating critical infrastructure in areas such as banking, energy and stock exchanges to report major online attacks and reveal security breaches, a draft EU report seen by Reuters on Monday said.

The European Union's executive Commission is due to present a proposal on cybersecurity in February once it has received feedback from the European Parliament and EU countries.

Telit’s launch of m2mAIR in July was seen as an ambitious and potentially risky move into value-added services by a company whose previous business had been largely restricted to the sale of M2M modules. But Telit says the number of m2mAIR customers is already approaching 100 and growing fast, with about 300 companies piloting the service.

Speaking to M2M Zone, Dan Amir, the head of m2mAIR, was upbeat about the performance of the division over its first few months in the market.

A consortium involving the Edison Power Group, South Africa’s largest electrical contracting company, and smart-meter specialist Itron has won a $150 million contract to roll out smart-metering technology in Johannesburg.

In what Itron (Liberty Lake, USA) describes as Africa’s first large-scale smart-metering project, the companies will provide support to City Power (Johannesburg, South Africa), a utility company in Johannesburg, by improving service delivery and efficiency through network automation.