EUROPE: EUR250 million loan to technology researchers

Telecommunications giant Nokia Siemens Networks has just received a Euro250 million loan from the European Investment Bank to support the research and development into radio access network technology.

The company is a global joint venture run by Finland's Nokia Corp with Germany's Siemens AG and operates in 150 countries around the world. The loan will be used to develop a new base station to serve existing second and third generation mobile phones and relay signals to future - maybe fourth generation - communications technologies.

The resulting technology is expected to make existing telecommunications services more cost-efficient while allowing future upgrades to be completed without revamping the entire system. Researchers in Finland, Poland, Germany and Italy will benefit from the EIB funds.

"Nokia Siemens Networks has some of Europe's most talented and innovative developers working on radio access network products that are setting standards across the industry and we are delighted that the value of that work has been recognised by the EIB with this facility," said Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri.

The bank was created in 1958 by the Treaty of Rome which founded the then European Economic Community (now the European Union), for which it serves as its long-term lending bank.

"The EIB attaches particular importance to the development of a knowledge-based economy in the union, which assures the long-term growth of European economies. We are happy to assist such promising initiatives," said EIB Vice-president Eva Srejber.