Businessweek

Ericsson announced the appointment of Peter Nyquist and Elisabeth Manzi as Head of Investor Relations and Head of the Corporate Communications team respectively. Peter Nyquist has a long background in investor relations and financial communication and since 2006 holds the position as Senior Vice President Investor Relations and Financial Information at Electrolux. In his new position, effective during the month of September, he will report to Helena Norrman, Head of Group Function Communications with close relations also to the CFO office. Nyquist will be part of the Communications Leadership Team and succeeds Åsa Konnbjer who has been acting in the role since February 2013. Manzi has for the past 13 years held various communications positions within Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), most recently as Head of Media Relations SAS. In her new position, effective August 1, 2013, she will lead the Corporate Communications team within External Communications and report to Ola Rembe, Head of External Communications, Group Function Communications. Manzi fills a vacancy in the organization.

Ericsson initiated union negotiations to close down its telecom cables operation within business unit Networks. In Europe there is more production than demand for both copper and fiber cables. The announcement primarily impacts the operations in Hudiksvall and Stockholm. A notice of reduction of 318 positions in Hudiksvall is given, and a dialog with the unions in Stockholm for how to close down 36 positions in Stockholm is initiated. Union negotiations expected to be completed during the third quarter 2013.

Ericsson and Verizon Wireless announced that they will be partnering to begin the deployment of small cells in the operator's 4G LTE network this year. Adding small cells will help increase the capacity in Verizon's 4G LTE network, enabling it to continue providing high quality and reliable mobile broadband service to its customers. The small cell deployment is the latest step in Ericsson's ongoing cooperation with Verizon as the operator rolls-out its 4G LTE nationwide network. Small cell deployment is a key part of Ericsson's heterogeneous network strategy. By integrating small cells as part of the macro mobile network, operators can cost effectively provide increased network capacity and improved coverage. It also provides full-service transparency in the network, ensuring that VoLTE, eMBMS and similar functionality work seamlessly in the network.

Huawei announced the signing of a MoU for an Operations Support System Interoperability Initiative (OSSii) along Ericsson with and Nokia Siemens Networks. The OSSii aims to simplify interoperability between OSS systems in a multi-vendor environment. The initiative will provide easy access to interfaces that earlier were subject to restricted use, and will enable interoperability testing services to a wider community. The parties' general guiding principles for the OSSii are openness, fairness, reasonableness and non-discriminatory treatment. Industrywide interoperability between different vendor OSS systems will reduce OSS integration costs, simplify overall network management, and enable shorter time-to-market for new services. By enabling the implementation of 'up-front' multi-vendor OSS interoperability, OSSii will also target the promotion of healthy, win-win competition for network-level OSS systems. While all three initiating OSSii companies have agreed to cross-license their OSS interfaces for multi-vendor network management, cross-licensing and interoperability testing opportunities will also be offered for third-party OSS vendors and other network equipment providers.

Thuraya has selected Ericsson as the sole vendor for its circuit-switched core network. Under the agreement, Ericsson will upgrade the Thuraya circuit-switched core network, implement an advanced billing mediation solution and provide support services for five years.