Brussels, 14/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the Commission authorised a planned merger between the Finnish mobile telephony company Nokia and the "networking equipment" division of the German Siemens AG. Both companies will transfer their "mobile and fixed telecommunications networking equipment" activities to the newly created company (Nokia Siemens Networks), which will be controlled by Nokia. As Nokia has only limited activities in the field of fixed telecommunications, the planned operation will impact mainly upon competition in the mobile networks sector, the Commission noted, adding that the structure of the market would nonetheless remain competitive. Network operators can always turn to other suppliers, such as Ericsson or Alcatel-Lucent. The operation gave rise to no problems for networking equipment for fixed telecommunications or all related services in the field of fixed and mobile telephony. (ab)