NSN ‘may join race’ for Nortel unit
Nokia Siemens Networks has been named as a possible bidder for one of the last remaining chunks of Nortel, the optical network division for which Ciena has already put in a $510 million offer. Under the deal, all the assets of Nortel’s metro ethernet businesses, including long-haul optical transport gear, switching technology and network management software are up for sale. NSN’s plans to bid for the assets are uncertain as they will have to exceed Ciena’s offer of $390 million in cash and 10 million shares. Ciena is also planning to appoint up to 2,000 Nortel workers if the deal is a success.
Global Telecoms Business

Europe: Brace yourself for a telecoms overhaul
The European Parliament and Council of Telecoms Ministers have reached a compromise over the rights of internet users continent-wide, setting Europe on course for a major overhaul of telecoms regulations. The Telecoms Reform package, which consists of a set of new laws tackling subjects ranging from data breach notifications to faster number porting, will become law in every EU country by May 2011, it was agreed on Wednesday night.
Silicon

Inventor of mobile phones says they have become 'too complicated'
Martin Cooper, who was the lead engineer of the Motorola team that developed the mobile phone, told a privacy conference in Madrid this week that today's phones try to do many things for too many people. He believes that the future is for a number of specialist devices that focus on one thing that will improve our lives,” said Mr Cooper, who has previously criticised the iPhone for being overly complicated and hard to use. However sales figures suggest that consumers are increasingly seeking phones with a range of features.
Telegraph

Cloud computing's CO2 lining
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and an industry group called The Green Grid have made it part of their missions to give consumers ways to compare the emerging cloud power-houses. In April, the EPA will unveil an “Energy Star” ratings programme for data centres, according to Michael Zatz, manager of the EPA’s Energy Star programme for commercial buildings. The programme is voluntary, so not everyone will report their efficiencies, but a number of companies, including Microsoft, are already on board.
Sci Tech
 
Google addresses privacy concerns with Dashboard
Google moved to address privacy concerns on Thursday with the release of a new tool that enables its users to access and manage their personal online data. Dashboard allows anyone with a Google account to sign in and view all the information about them stored by various services including Gmail, YouTube, Blogger and Google Docs.
Total Telecom
 
Vodafone’s 360: a complete U-turn on vertical integration?
According to Bobby Rao, Director Internet Services Marketing, at Vodafone Group an important part of the service is that it can be accessed by its user across any network. This is crucial in an increasingly multi-screen world where a larger proportion of mobile users are now looking more like ‘cloud’ users because they want to access the same services and data from different devices.
Telecom TV

Government to simulate "total collapse" of UK phone network
In the first exercise of its kind in the UK, the government will simulate a "total collapse" of the national phone network next week, as part of the National Strategy for Cyber Security launched by Gordon Brown in June.
Computing

Tech titans meet in secret to plug SSL hole
Researchers say they've uncovered a flaw in the secure sockets layer protocol that allows attackers to inject text into encrypted traffic passing between two endpoints.
The Register

Backdoor in top iPhone games stole user data, suit claims
A maker of some of the most popular games for the iPhone has been surreptitiously collecting users' cell numbers without their permission. The complaint claims best-selling games made by Storm8 contained secret code that bypassed safeguards built into the iPhone to prevent the unauthorized snooping of user information.
The Register

O2 strikes €900m Hansenet deal
Telefónica O2 Germany is to buy Telecom Italia's German subsidiary Hansenet for €900 million (£807m). The acquisition will make Telefónica O2 Germany the number three player in the German market in terms of revenue, with a combined annual revenue of almost €5 billion.
Mobile News