News In Brief: Deutsche Telekom, GSM Association, Google, France Telecom, Zain Bahrain, Verizon

Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have completed the merger of their UK mobile units. The former CEO of Orange UK, Tom Alexander, has been named chief executive, while T-Mobile UK’s CEO Richard Moat takes up the role of CFO and deputy CEO.
 
The GSM Association has ruled that Starhome’s Gateway Location Register (GLR) is not a hostile method of maintaining roaming mobile users on a carrier’s network, because it isn’t an anti-steering of roaming (anti-SoR) product.
 
Google’s European chief predicts smartphones will make PCs irrelevant in the next three years. John Herlihy says the shift is already underway in Japan and will spread globally, Brighthand.com reports.
 
France Telecom is providing software that allows PC web browsers to be used on IPTV to South Korea’s KT Corp. The preliminary agreement is part of KT Corp’s plan to grow its international presence.
 
Zain Bahrain claims to have achieved downlink speeds of 70Mbps, with minimum latency of 15 milliseconds, on its trial LTE network.
 
US operator Verizon has announced it will be forced to take a $970 million non-cash charge as a result of the US's new healthcare bill, which will remove subsidies on medical benefits the company must pay to its retirees.