Nokia and Siemens have agreed to combine the bulk of their telecom networks businesses to create one of the biggest players in the industry, sending shares in both firms higher. Analysts put a value of 20-25 billion euros (13.7-17.1 billion pounds) on the new business, whose Finnish and German parents will exchange no money to do the deal. Around one in five mobile phone calls is already made via a Siemens or Nokia network.

The units in the 50-50 venture, "Nokia Siemens Networks", had sales of 15.8 billion euros last year, which would make it the second-biggest mobile equipment player and third in fixed infrastructure, the companies said on Monday.

In the overall telecoms infrastructure market, the joint venture will rank behind industry leader Cisco Systems Inc., the merged Alcatel-Lucent and Sweden-based Ericsson by total sales. The combination of Nokia's networks unit and the Siemens carrier business in fixed and mobile networks will offer some savings, and up to 9,000 jobs are due to be cut. It will also help the companies get ahead in converged systems, the technology that allows fixed-line and mobile operations over the Internet.