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UPDATE 2-France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom eye ventures

Published 02/11/2011, 09:29 AM

* May include radio access network sharing, wireless roaming

* Won't include share swaps -France Telecom spokesman

* Shares slightly lower

(Adds analyst's comment, updates share price)

FRANKFURT/PARIS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - European telecom rivals France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are sounding out more potential areas of technology cooperation, though share swaps are being ruled out.

The partnerships may cover radio access network sharing in Europe, wireless internet while roaming, equipment standardisation and cross-border services, France Telecom said in a statement.

"This does not include any share swaps," a France Telecom spokesman said, dashing some investor hopes that it was a first step towards stronger ties between the two.

"It is basically a technology cooperation which aims at cost cutting, and they're doing quite a lot already in this field," said Theo Kitz, analyst at Merck Finck.

"It may not have been the news that the market is really waiting for, namely that of an even deeper cooperation."

Shares of France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom were respectively down 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent at 1313 GMT, slightly higher than the STOXX 600 Europe telecommunications index.

Rumours have swirled repeatedly over a decade about a merger between the two telecom groups, most recently prompted by Deutsche Bank raising its stake in the French operator above the threshold of 5 percent.

A French union said at the time the move could be a sign of merger plans but France Telecom said it had no plans to merge with its German rival.

However, the two operators merged their mobile businesses in the UK in 2009 to create British mobile operator Everything Everywhere, which has nearly 28 million customers.

See also:

* Mobile operators bet big on Africa broadband

* French telecom ops reverse plan to hike mobile prices

* Orange set to buy Dailymotion stake

(Reporting by Lionel Laurent and Julien Ponthus in Paris and Christoph Steitz and Nicola Leske in Frankfurt; Editing by David Cowell)

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