A new report from Strategy Analytics shows that over 450 million households worldwide currently have a WiFi connection, which is a 5% increase from last year.

The UK is fourth on the list with 72.1% penetration, behind Norway (76.2%), South Korea (76.4%) and the Netherlands (80.4%).

Nokia Networks - formerly known as NSN - has agreed to acquire Panasonic’s 3G and LTE base station system business.

The deal is expected to be finalised next month.

A new report about the state of 4G LTE coverage around the world has been published by UK-based business OpenSignal, which creates crowd-sourced mobile network coverage maps from its Android and iOS apps.

The report looks at two key concerns: download speeds and the proportion of time spent in an area covered by an LTE service.

Japanese technology company NEC Corporation says it has stopped developing, making and selling smartphones via its NEC CASIO Mobile Communications business.

The smartphone business is controlled by NEC, with Casio and Hitachi each owning a minority share.

Mobile payment service iZettle, which enables businesses to accept credit and debit card payments via a smartphone, is now able to process Japan Credit Bureau (JCB) cards in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

The company says this makes it the first mobile payment solution in Europe to accept JCB cards.

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?

We start this week's show with news about the European Commission's plans to end mobile roaming charges completely from next year.

We're also talking about the future facing Twitter and Dell, Vodafone's security challenges in Germany, app development, wireless charging, mobile payments and Nokia's Android-based smartphones.

This week's show is packed with new products, including two iPhones, three smartwatches, two Android smartphones and a couple of innovative lens-based camera accessories.

We also find time to talk about mobile security, virtual networks and being dishonest via text message.

We're back after a short break last week - and just in time for three of the biggest industry news stories of the year.

Microsoft's CEO announces his retirement, then Vodafone sells its US operation for $130 billion... and now Nokia's mobile phone business is being bought. Alongside these reports there's also time to talk about 4G in the UK, children with mobiles, roaming charges and the future of smartphones.

In this special feature we're talking to David Akka, who tells us why he says Android is dead, why Chromecast is an omen for the mobile industry, why OS companies are getting into hardware and what the future holds for the mobile industry.

David is UK managing director of Magic Software and describes himself as a 'recovering techie'. His personal blog is at davidakka.com.

There's good news for Telefonica as it's chosen to support the UK's smart meter rollout - but bad news for fans of the Microsoft Tag barcode, which is being discontinued in a couple of years' time.

We're also talking about drivers who use mobile phones illegally, Amazon's new service for mobile developers, the forthcoming Kazam smartphone, mobile advertising, satellite broadband, wearable security accessories and a word that's completely unacceptable to Motorola.