Struggling network infrastructure vendor Nokia Siemens Networks is planning to cut 17,000 jobs worldwide, as it aims to cut €1 billion (US$1.35 billion) from its costs by the end of 2013, the company said Wednesday.

Telstra is set to run a commercial pilot of its 4G LTE network with around 2000 of its business customers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Optus has picked Nokia Siemens to provide Long Term Evolution (LTE) compatible packet core technology.

A number of different technologies are being developed or improved to offer higher speeds for fixed and mobile broadband networks, as operators are preparing to compete with each other and carry video traffic in 3D and at higher resolutions, which is expected to happen in the coming year.

Attention has been focused on the higher speeds that will be offered by next generation LTE (Long-Term Evolution) mobile networks, but improved latency will be equally important to users, according to Nokia Siemens.

The founding CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks has resigned and will be replaced by another long-term Nokia executive as the two-year-old company battles it out in a consolidating carrier-infrastructure industry.

Sweden's LM Ericsson has won the bidding war over the wireless assets of Nortel Networks, agreeing to pay US$1.13 billion for the financially beleaguered Canadian company's CDMA business and LTE Access technology.

Research in Motion is calling on the Canadian government to review the auction of Nortel Network's assets claiming it was shut out of bidding for the troubled network hardware maker's wireless properties.

With Nokia Siemens bidding on Nortel's wireless business and Avaya rumored to be grabbing up its enterprise gear, it is all but inevitable that the rest of company will be broken up and sold off in pieces, which raises questions. Here are some of them and the answers.