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?

It's a good week for Yahoo! as it appoints Marissa Mayer - previously Google employee number 20 - to the role of CEO. However, things aren't as cheery at Research In Motion, which has been ordered to pay over $147 million in a patent case.

Meanwhile O2 UK is recovering from a network problem that left around a third of its customers disconnected for almost a day.

There's plenty of variety in The Fonecast this week. We start the podcast with news of MeeGo's resurrection by Finnish smartphone company Jolla before talking about a mobile network that’s giving away mobile data whenever its customers watch video advertisements.

There's also time to discuss Telefonica's recent deals, the rise of free WiFi availability, tablet-related legal action, malware in the Apple App Store and the truth behind a recent 'exploding mobile phone' story.

In this special feature we're talking to Ian Brown from Axell Wireless about mobile phone coverage on the London Underground.

WiFi is now available on a number of London Underground stations - so why is it taking so long to arrange mobile phone service on the Tube?

This week's edition of The Fonecast takes a look at the new Google Nexus 7 tablet, wonders what's next for RIM and awaits the arrival of the forthcoming Firefox mobile platform.

There's also talk about HTC's partnership with Pioneer, Vodafone's European reorganisation, the new BT WiFi brand, Ofcom complaints, tariff problems and international roaming.

In this week's podcast we're talking about the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system, the UK launch of the Amazon Appstore and the GSMA's plans to make international roaming easier to understand.

There's also time to discuss new mobile tariffs from Virgin Media, cars that call for help after an accident, some mobile shopping research and LG's future as a tablet manufacturer.