Three UK has suspended its distributors and dealers from performing consumer upgrades.

It says it’s reviewing its upgrade practice because of concerns about the quality of service.

Ofcom has published some updated research on mobile not-spots, the areas in the UK where mobile coverage is poor or unavailable.

It's found that the coverage checkers provided by mobile networks are based on data that is 'reasonably accurate' for outdoor predictions, noting that the checkers are freely provided online and in-store.

LG Electronics has started rolling out 'remote customer care services' worldwide.

This will enable the company to diagnose software problems and upgrade firmware for mobile phones 'over the air'. The service has been available in South Korea since May.

In this week's podcast we’re talking about smartphone sales from Nokia and Apple, redundancies at RIM, the closure of Google Labs, gesture recognition technology, customer service research and the growth (or not) of mobile payments.

You can download the show from iTunes or listen to the podcast by using the audio player on our website. There's an RSS feed for the MP3 version of the podcast as well.

This week we start with contrasting quarterly results from Apple and Nokia before talking about Google Labs, a new London taxi app, gesture recognition technology, mobile payments and some customer service research.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.