Device Arena

Ericsson’s Board of Directors’ evaluation of the company’s long-term variable remuneration plans leads to the conclusion that the current plans are effective and achieve their objectives with a positive impact on the business. The Board of Directors has therefore decided to propose that the Annual General Meeting on April 9, 2008 resolves on a continued Long-Term Variable Remuneration Program 2008 (LTV 2008) which is in all material respects similar to the previous programs. The program comprises in total 99.5 million B-shares.

The Program is divided into three plans: (1) a Stock Purchase Plan embracing all employees, designed to award employees one Ericsson share for each share invested in under the plan, (2) a plan for up to ten percent of the employees (presently approximately 7,400) selected as key contributors to receive a second matching share, and (3) a plan embracing the CEO and other senior managers, up to 0.5 percent of employees (presently approximately 350, although it is anticipated that the number of participants will be significantly lower) who earn a further four, six or eight matching shares in addition to the ordinary matching share under the Stock Purchase Plan, provided that certain financial goals are met.
Matching under the program presupposes that the employee invests part of the salary (up to 7.5 percent, the CEO: 9 percent, of the gross fixed salary) in Ericsson shares, retain the shares and remains in employment at the time of the matching, three years after the investment.

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Nokia has opened a satellite design studio in Rio de Janeiro reflecting the increasing impact Latin American style and culture is expected to have on the future design of mobile devices and services. Based at the Design School of UniverCidade, it will bring together Nokia designers, students and established local designers to explore new trends and ideas that will influence products for the Latin American and global markets.

The satellite studio is the second in a series Nokia is establishing in the world’s hottest new design capitals. The first was opened in Bangalore, India, last year. Set up in partnership with leading design schools in each country, the fixed term studios bring Nokia designers directly into contact with local cultures and influences that will help inspire new design ideas and provide local students with hands on experience of working with a world class global design team.

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AT&T announced a five-year $66 million contract with the state of South Carolina to provide state agencies, local and county governments, school districts and libraries with advanced communications services.

AT&T is already the primary provider of communications services to South Carolina. The new AT&T contract will provide voice services to more than 3,000 locations.

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AT&T has announced that Deutsch, a multinational electronics corporation, has signed a new two-year agreement for AT&T’s Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Virtual Private Network (VPN) service. The service will link Deutsch’s facilities in the U.S., Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, Israel and the U.K.

In order to achieve its goal of becoming a global company, Deutsch sought a common network platform for various applications, such as e-mail, data sharing, video conferencing and phone systems. The AT&T VPN solution will be deployed across 15 company sites and will allow them to be linked together regardless of location, application or time zone.

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AT&T announced a contract with Health First to deliver AT&T’s RFID Asset Tracking Solution. The contract could extend to as many as 40 locations, including health care planning offices, health and fitness facilities, various clinics and three major hospitals serving east-central Florida.

AT&T’s RFID Asset Tracking Solution works seamlessly with Health First’s existing wireless network infrastructure and enables hospital staff to benefit from precise, on-demand asset tracking. A wireless-based RFID tag sends regular signals to keep track of equipment and personnel locations and provides status updates, which are available for hospital staff to view with a Web browser anywhere on a health care facility’s wireless network.

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