Mark Bridge writes:

A horse box and eight SIM cards. That’s the basic technology keeping the BBC’s Olympic Torch Relay broadcasts on the air and on the road.

The converted DAF horse box is being driven in front of the runners as they carry an Olympic torch along the relay route. It’s equipped with four cameras and a mixing desk, enabling a choice of views to be recorded and broadcast for 12 hours per day throughout the 70-day relay.

A BBC survey into 3G coverage across the UK has shown that people who were able to receive a data connection only managed to use a 3G signal for 75% of the time.

For almost a quarter of the time they were connecting to 2G GPRS technology.

The BBC is conducting a month-long survey that's designed to measure the availability of 2G and 3G mobile phone services in the UK. It's using an Android application that'll collect information and will anonymise it.

The UK 3G Survey app has been developed for the BBC by Epitiro.

Some of the UK's largest technology and media companies are working together to see if unused TV spectrum could be used as an alternative to WiFi and mobile data.

The BBC, BSkyB, BT, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung are among the companies that have formed the Cambridge TV White Spaces Consortium.

James Rosewell writes:

For those that don't regularly watch the BBC News Channel at 5pm here's a rather hasty recording of an interview with our very own Mark Bridge concerning "Quick Tap"; a rather underwhelming new mobile payment product from Orange and Barclaycard.

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?

The Fonecast this week covers text message donations, free calls to government helplines, distracted driving, legal action, consolidation... and all the other major mobile industry headlines as well.

This week the team takes a look at product announcements from the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas before diving into the rest of the week's mobile industry news. And Faisal Sheikh from Fone Doctors offers his perspective on the Google Nexus One.

Happy New Year! We're back from our Christmas break with a quick look at the new Google Nexus One, a browse through all the other top mobile industry headlines and a review of 2009.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge take their usual look at the biggest mobile industry news stories - and this week they also predict what's likely to be hitting the headlines in 2010. In addition, they review their 2009 predictions... and discover they did pretty well.

This week's news headlines include the Google Nexus One smartphone, 4G technology, hands-free driving and (once again) the iPhone. There's also an interview with Mark Finlayson from business-to-business dealer Next Communications.