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 have a particularly packed programme this week as we catch up with all the biggest mobile industry news stories since Christmas.

There's opinion on everything from the UK 4G auction to the current CES show and from open-source smartphones to wireless phone charging in cars.

It's the last podcast of 2012, so we're making some predictions about the mobile industry in 2013... and looking back to the forecasts we made twelve months ago..

Should we expect a renaissance at BlackBerry?  Is it the beginning of the end for SMS?  Will smartphones keep getting bigger?  Will the number of UK networks get smaller? 

Today's podcast feature takes a look at mobile financial services, from the current state of mobile payments to NFC adoption and the developments we're likely to see next year.

Joining us are Winston Yeo, Vice President Marketing and Product Management for Mobile Financial Services at Gemalto, and Amol Deshmukh, Gemalto's Director of Mobile Financial Services for North America.

This week's podcast includes news of two more UK virtual networks, Nokia's property deal, a break-up for ST-Ericsson and Huawei's new partnership with Three.

We also look at WiFi hotspots in London taxis, Ofcom's research into customer service, pre-loaded security software on Android smartphones and a man whose iPhone may have cost him a job.

This week Iain Graham has been talking to Keith Curran about the problems facing mobile networks and the opportunities for mobile phone dealers.

Keith was a director of the Caudwell Group before setting up, running and later selling service provider Yes Telecom. He’s now CEO of Steadings Group.