STOCKHOLM, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Swedish telecom equipment

maker Ericsson has created a new joint venture for

selling network software tools with over a dozen telecom

operators across regions, it said in a statement on Thursday.

It said the firms it joined forces with, in order to

accelerate the adoption of application programming interface

(API) software, included Deutsche Telekom and

Vodafone ( VOD ) in Europe, Verizon and AT&T ( T ) in the U.S.

and Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio in India.