A week after Nokia’s acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent was approved by the European Commission, the two companies both reported stronger results. Their timing seemed, for once, perfect, with a marriage now almost certain to take place, and against a backdrop of improving fortunes in network infrastructure (Ericsson also turned in better than expected revenues for the second quarter, while Huawei enjoyed its most impressive sales growth for five years). Unlike the painful mergers that created ALU and Nokia Siemens in 2006/2007, this deal may be one created from a position of strength and recovery, not desperation. But is that view, which is currently bolstering the two firms’ share prices, really tenable? An improving economic climate, and a new wave of carrier…