UK communications regulator Ofcom has decided that the annual mobile fees for mobile operators will treble, following a government direction that the fees should reflect ‘full market value’.

Ofcom has concluded that mobile operators should pay a combined annual total of £199.6m per year for the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands.

Ofcom has changed the licences of the UK’s ‘big four’ mobile network operators to improve mobile coverage.

EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have all agreed to accept this change.

Vodafone has signed a 15-year agreement with outdoor advertising company JCDecaux to deploy ‘small cells’ on street furniture and billboards, which will improve network performance.

It’s a global deal that follows a successful pilot programme where Vodafone Netherlands installed over 160 small cells on bus shelters in Amsterdam.

EE has started introducing ‘micro network’ technology that can provide mobile coverage to remote areas.

However, unlike rival services - such as Vodafone’s Open Sure Signal - the EE rural micro network solution doesn’t require a broadband connection. Instead, it links to the main network wirelessly.

Time for another podcast presented by Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge. They begin this week's programme by talking about the latest enterprise-friendly developments from BlackBerry.

Next comes a new survey from Ofcom about the UK's 4G data speeds, followed by news about TalkTalk's MVNO deal with Telefonica, the growth of WiFi in the home and a report from AVG about social media sapping smartphone performance.

By incorporating advanced algorithms and machine learning capabilities, AI can help to optimize a smartphone's performance, providing users with a faster, more efficient and user-friendly experience.

Mark Bridge writes:

I've been taking a look back at the devices I've written about during the past few years. Some are still faithful companions, others... well, let's just say my faith was misplaced.

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?

This week the team review a new phone from Sagem, a bluetooth headset that cancels out background noise from Qstik, the introduction of .mobi domains and the latest games to keep you entertained.

This week the team explore the real cost of Mobile Internet, review the latest Blackberry with a camera, the O2 Ice, and Lego meets Star Wars in the latest mobile game.

This week the team discuss mobile pricing, review the LG KG810 and MDA Vario 2 from T-Mobile along with Rogue Trader the latest game from RockPool as well as a joke management system called Pass-It-On-Jokes.

This week we review the Sony Mylo, a phone that may rival the Blackberry in the form of the E61 from Nokia, Insaniquarium the latest game to make the leap from web to mobile and the LG U400 phone for DJs.

After the summer break the Fonecast team is back with a review of 2 new mobiles from Motorola, a stylish new phone from BenQ-Siemens, advice on protecting your voice mail plus all the mobile news from the last month.