Orange is in talks to buy its smaller rival Bouygues Telecom, a move that would consolidate one of Europe's most competitive telecoms marketplaces.

Orange, which is 20-percent owned by the French state, said it had ""renewed preliminary discussions"" with the Bouygues group, but stressed they were not bound to any timeframe nor committed to ""any particular predefined outcome.""

Read more: France's Orange to buy Bouygues Telecom

Nokia Networks, together with SK Telecom, demonstrated 428 Mbps data transmission rates through the industry's first TD-LTE 3xCA with 256 QAM, which utilized a Qualcomm Snapdragon X12 LTE modem from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated. This is a key development that lays the foundation for the introduction of TD-LTE in Korea. The trial verifies the clear benefits of 3xCA combined with 256 QAM-capable devices that can boost the peak throughput from 110 Mbps to 428 Mbps.

Read more: Nokia Networks shows industry's first TD-LTE-Advanced 3 carrier aggregation plus 256 QAM using...