Inmarsat, the mobile satellite communications business that was originally created by the International Maritime Organization to help ships stay in touch, has launched the first of its Global Xpress satellites today.

When these satellites are in place, Inmarsat will use Ka-band radio frequencies to deliver download speeds of up to 50Mbps and uploads of up to 5Mbps to mobile or fixed devices.

UK-based Mobile Commerce Ltd, which provides mobile search services to a number of network operators, has published details of the brands and search terms that were popular in 2013.

The company dealt with 8 billion search requests during the past 12 months and handled more than a quarter of all searches from mobile internet users via UK operator portals.

Jürgen Hase writes:

Machine-to-machine communication (M2M) and the Internet of Things (IoT) run through all areas of life and work. Cars, cargo containers, parking spaces or even wristwatches and coffee cups – everything around us is on the verge of being connected.

Juniper Research has published its predictions for technology industries next year.

At the top of the list is a prediction that cities will ‘get smarter’ during the next 12 months, anticipating that the high-profile smart technology testbeds of Singapore, Barcelona and Nice will be joined by many other cities next year.

UK virtual network Ovivo has revised its tariffs for smartphones and tablets. The ad-funded MVNO now offers 200 minutes of UK calls, 300 text messages and 500MB of mobile data every month for no charge on its ‘Freedom 0’ tariff.

Instead of paying a monthly fee, customers are shown online advertisements and will also receive some text message ads.