Part of the deal by Nokia to sell its mobile phone business to Microsoft would also see it restricted in how it uses the Nokia brand name in the future.

As part of the deal, Nokia is granting Microsoft a 10-year licence to use the Nokia brand name "on current and subsequently developed Mobile Phones based on the Series 30 and Series 40 operating systems."

Nokia retains ownership of the brand name in a move that mirrors the deal IBM struck when it sold its computer division to China’s Lenovo in 2005, although Lenovo stopped using the IBM brand after just three years.

However, as part of the deal with Microsoft, Nokia will also be restricted from licensing the Nokia brand for use in connection with mobile device sales for 30 months and from using the Nokia brand on Nokia’s own mobile devices until December 31, 2015.

The transaction with Microsoft is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

Huawei has pledged to diversify its service portfolio in Europe and is looking to hire around 5,500 additional staff in the region. It employs around 7,500 staff in Europe currently. The expansion comes as the company admits that it still faces problems gaining access to the US market.

The company has just opened an exhibition centre in the Netherlands to promote its services in Europe.

Patrick Zhang, president of marketing and solutions, Huawei Enterprise Business Group said that providing IT solutions to European enterprises is a new growth engine for the company in Europe. Huawei entered this business in 2011 and the turnover in the division is expected to reach US$1 billion in the next three to five years.

"Apart from research and development input, localisation is our key to success," Zhang said. The job creation being outlined is scaled to take place over the next five years.

The company still faces hurdles within Europe, but less on grounds of security than due to suspicions that the company receives state aid, particularly in the form of generous loans from state-controlled banks. These could spark import tariffs being applied to goods sold in Europe, although European vendors are more wary, fearing a backlash from the more lucrative Chinese market.

Bahrain’s telecom regulator, the TRA has announced that it has handed over LTE spectrum licences to the country’s three mobile network operators.

The TRA’s chairman handed the licences to Batelco, Zain and Viva at its headquarters.

The concession permits the use of LTE services over all three main frequency blocks currently used by the mobile networks, 900MHz; 1800MHz and 2.1GHz.

The regulator also confirmed that it has provided the necessary authorisations for Menatelecom to migrate its fixed-wireless service to LTE as well.

BlackBerry has issued a trading update and is warning that it expects to post a loss of around US$1 billion for the second financial quarter of the year.

The company is also confirming rumours of massive redundancies, and is cutting approximately 4,500 employees – which accounts for about 40 per cent of the workforce.

The firm also said that it would cut its product range from six smartphones to four, focusing on enterprise and professional consumer-centric devices, including two high-end devices and two entry-level devices.

Financially, the company expects to post a net operating loss of approximately US$950 million to US$995 million; loss includes a primarily non-cash, pre-tax inventory charge of approximately US$930 million to US$960 million resulting from the increasingly competitive business environment impacting BlackBerry smartphone volumes, and a pre-tax restructuring charge of US$72 million.

Thorsten Heins, president and CEO of BlackBerry said, "We are implementing the difficult, but necessary operational changes announced today to address our position in a maturing and more competitive industry, and to drive the company toward profitability. Going forward, we plan to refocus our offering on our end-to-end solution of hardware, software and services for enterprises and the productive, professional end user."

At the end of the second quarter, total cash, cash equivalents and investments is estimated to be approximately US$2.6 billion. The company has no debt.

The company currently expects to report revenue for the second quarter of approximately US$1.6 billion, of which approximately 50 per cent is expected to be service revenue.

For the second quarter, the company expects to recognise hardware revenue on approximately 3.7 million BlackBerry smartphones. Most of the units recognised are BlackBerry 7 devices, in part because certain BlackBerry 10 devices that were shipped in the quarter will not be recognised until those devices are sold through to end-customers. During the second quarter, approximately 5.9 million BlackBerry smartphones were sold through to end-customers, which included shipments made prior to the second quarter and which reduced the company’s inventory in channel.

BlackBerry has confirmed that it will launch its Messenger Apps for use on Android and Apple devices later this week.

Previously only available on BlackBerry smartphones, BBM will be available as a free download in Google Play and the App Store.

"BBM is a very engaging messaging service that is simple to use, easy to personalise and has an immediacy that is necessary for mobile communications," said Andrew Bocking, executive VP for BBM at BlackBerry. "With more than a billion Android, iOS, and BlackBerry smartphones in the market, and no dominant mobile messaging platform, this is absolutely the right time to bring BBM to Android and iPhone customers."

BBM will be available as a free download for Android smartphones running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean (Android 4.x) on September 21.

BBM for iPhones running iOS 6 and iOS 7 will become available for each market on the App Store on September 22.