UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has agreed to make radio spectrum available for transport operators to offer faster broadband connections to passengers on aircraft, boats, railway trains and coaches.

Each vehicle could receive a data connection of around 50Mbit/sec, providing more than 10Mbps via WiFi to an individual passenger.

UK telecom regulator Ofcom has published a consultation about authorising satellite-powered broadband systems that can provide internet connections on moving vehicles, including aircraft, ships, coaches and trains.

These systems, which are known as Earth Stations on Mobile Platforms (ESOMPs), can outperform cellular signals and current satellite-based internet connections on moving vehicles.

Customers on Brighton & Hove buses can now use a mobile phone app instead of cash when they want to buy a ticket, although the option is currently only available on a few services and with certain ticket types.

Watford-based Corethree has provided the mobile ticketing platform.

The Transport for South Hampshire council partnership says local bus passengers will soon be able to enjoy free WiFi on their smartphones, tablets and laptops. The service will be rolled out from this month following a £4.5 million bid to the Department for Transport’s Better Bus Area Fund and additional investment from bus operators.

As well as providing free WiFi, the funding will be used to improve & refurbish buses, for driver training and to offer up-to-date bus timetable information via smartphones.

Public transport operator Stagecoach Group has launched a trial of NFC bus tickets in partnership with Everything Everywhere. It’s enabling some customers on the Stagecoach bus network in Cambridgeshire to use their Orange ‘Quick Tap’ NFC phones as tickets.

The scheme uses the Department of Transport’s preferred ITSO ticketing technology and is described as the UK’s first Government-standard commercial deployment of mobile contactless transport ticketing.

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's podcast begins with a heated discussion about the UK government's consultation about improving mobile phone coverage.

Iain, James and Mark then move on to talk about over-the-top voice services, mobile internet usage, patent deals, the UK's next spectrum auction and wearable technology.

Leaving your wallet at home and going shopping with nothing more than your mobile phone is still a science-fiction vision of the future.

But it's getting much closer to reality, thanks to a UK-based company called Corethree. They're currently working with a number of public transport operators and have brought mobile tickets to a wide range of smartphones.

The new Microsoft Band, the Samsung Galaxy A smartphones and the Huawei Honor 6 are all discussed in this week's podcast.

We also look at some of the mobile industry's other big stories, including Amazon UK's mobile phone deals, the Lenovo purchase of Motorola Mobility, LG's quarterly results and the anticipated increase in WiFi hotspots.

We start this week's podcast with news that EE now has the largest 4G customer base in Europe, with 5.6 million UK connections.

There's also talk about a new DIY product for the Internet of Things, the disappearance of Nokia branded smartphones, quarterly results for Apple, increasing M2M connections and a growing market for smartwatches.

The new Apple iPad tablets, Google's latest Nexus devices, Android Lollipop, wearable tech from will.i.am and the world's slimmest smartphone all feature in this week's podcast.

We're also talking about free mobile data for Christmas, 4.5G technology being rolled out in the UK, 5G technology being tested in South Korea, the end of an era for webOS and video messages that self-destruct.