THE WRAP: Taxing times for Vodafone, Apple displaces Sony Ericsson

This week Vodafone faced tax problems on two continents, while SK Telecom put Google and Apple in its crosshairs.
 
The Indian government sent Vodafone a $2.5 billion (€1.8 billion) tax bill over its Essar acquisition,while protesters in the UK blockaded its flagship store alleging it dodged paying billions in taxes.
 
SK Telecom put $900 million on the table in a bid to build an apps platform to challenge Google, Apple and Nokia. It blamed a 16% fall in operating earnings on higher depreciation cost because of heavy network investment.
 
Apple reportedly planned an end-run about European mobile operators by using its own SIM to enable it to directly sign customers to networks. In yet another sign of its growing focus on China, Apple opened an online store and a Chinese language version of the App Store on the mainland.
 
Verizon agreed to pay $77 million in refunds and penalties in a settlement over excessive mobile data charges.
 
Indian cellcos said they had accepted the government's arrangements for monitoring BlackBerrys although some are worried that the web-based system was itself not secure.
 
Qualcomm sought a buyer for its Indian broadband wireless spectrum but said the new owner would have to commit to TD-LTE.
 
IBM led an EU project to improve device energy efficiency tenfold and eliminate “vampire” - or standby - power consumption.
 
Motorola reported a rare quarterly profit and increased sales for the first time in four years
 
 
Telenor lifted guidance on the back of its growing Asian units.
 
Former Deutsche Telekom chief Kai-Uwe Ricke told a German court he had no knowledge of illegal wiretapping by an ex-security manager, and denied authorizing the action.
 
Nokia Siemens claimed a new speed record with Phantom DSL, topping 825Mbps over 400 meters.
 
Sony Ericsson grew revenues during 3Q, but lower handset sales saw it slip out of the top five, iSuppli revealed. Its spot was taken by Apple, which took fourth place ahead of RIM, IDC said.
 
Google came under scrutiny again after it admitted its Street View cars had downloaded entire emails and passwords and not just data fragments as previously claimed.
 
And 3G reached the highest point on the planet as Nepalese cellco Ncell began service at Everest base camp.