News In Brief: Facebook, Fastweb, Alca-Lu, VIVACOM, Bouygues, NEC

Facebook has launched a low-bandwidth, text-only version of its mobile site called Facebook Zero, in an effort to encourage mobile usage and open the site up to more users. Currently, 100 million people access Facebook from their phone, and the GSMA revealed that Facebook accounts for nearly half of the time UK mobile users spend browsing via their phones – a combined 2.2 billion minutes in December alone.
 
Italy's Fastweb has posted a full-year net profit of €36.6 million, compared to just €1.1 million the year before. The earnings surge is the result of an influx of corporate customers, the company said.
 
Alcatel-Lucent has announced a new cloud-based developer platform capable of allowing developers to build and manage apps across broadband, mobile and television networks. 
 
Bulgarian operator VIVACOM has awarded Alcatel-Lucent a five-year contract to transform its fixed and mobile network. It will outsource its network operations to the vendor from March 1.
 
French fixed and mobile operator Bouygues Telecom has contracted Ip.access to supply 2G picocells to the company's enterprise customers.
 
NEC has been contracted to Network Norway to build the country’s first femtocell network. Network Norway will offer the service to its enterprise customers.