At the iMedia Connection, Roger Park looks today at the planned merger of networks between Nokia and Siemens and its implications for fixed/mobile convergence.

"The Nokia and Siemens partnership is expected to close by the end of the year and is seen as a way to compete against market leader Ericsson AB," Park writes. "The two companies said that 10 percent of staff positions will be likely cut over the next four years."

According to Infonetics analyst Richard Webb, it's all about enabling fixed/mobile convergence.

"The focus of the Siemens-Nokia deal is on quadruple-play broadband and fixed-mobile convergence, both of which have shown up in our recent studies as being very much at the forefront of carriers' strategic thinking," Webb says. "A Siemens-Nokia partnership looks to be a genuine symbiosis, without too much overlap."

"In our tracking of the radio access network equipment market, Nokia is definitely A-list, especially in the 3G segment, and combining this with the strength of Siemens in long haul and core and edge fixed networks will create a carrier network heavyweight that could be more than the sum of its parts, a case of 2+2 = 5," Webb says.