News In Brief: Ericsson, NSN, C&W, DT, BT, France Telecom, Vodafone, Zain Bahrain

Ericsson today completed its acquisition of Nortel’s North American GSM assets. The deal, announced in November, includes Nortel’s carrier contracts, and adds to Ericsson’s 2009 purchase of Nortel’s CDMA and LTE assets in the region.
 
Zain Bahrain today completed its first LTE call, using Nokia Siemens Networks’ Flexi base stations and NetAct network management product. The call achieved a minimum latency of 15 milliseconds – the smallest in any public LTE call, NSN says.
 
A major flood at a BT exchange has knocked out services for tens of thousands of its subscribers across the UK. The reported cause of the flood was an electrical fault.
 
Cable&Wireless Worldwide has won a £30 million (€33.6 million) contract to provide converged voice and data network services to United Utilities, the UK’s largest water company. The five-year deal covers 300 sites including data centres, water works and two key contact centres.
 
Deutsche Telekom is taking to the skies after being chosen to supply wireless internet for Panasonic Avionics’ Global Communications Suite. The telco will manage the internet gateway, billing, and customer support via its T-Mobile brand, reports state.
 
France Telecom has successfully closed a €1 billion bond offering, due in 2020. The bond has a fixed coupon rate of 3.875% over its ten-year lifespan.
 
Vodafone's stock was boosted by reports that it is pressuring Verizon to either finally pay out a dividend from Verizon Wireless – in which Vodafone owns a 45% stake -, merge the unit with Vodafone, or spin it off.