Online parenting site BabyCentre has published a survey that shows over half of all mums considered their smartphone to be an ‘essential tool’ to help with parenting.

Almost three in five said it helped to reduce the isolation of new motherhood, while 40% described their mobile device as a ‘backup brain’.

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 take a look at Vodafone 360, O2's giffgaff MVNO and the Apple iPhone's appearance on Orange, along with the rest of the week's top mobile industry news stories.

Paul Leonard from Sprint Communication Systems talks about his franchise expansion plans. And, as usual, the podcast team takes its regular look at the latest news and rumours from the mobile phone industry.

This week's edition of The Fonecast is dominated by partnerships and takeovers, with T-Mobile, Vodafone, SpinVox, NEC and Nokia all being discussed. There's also plenty of talk about new Android devices from Motorola, LG and INQ.

Orange and T-Mobile agree a UK joint venture, loads of new handsets are announced, Ofcom talks about child safety and 3 changes its telesales business.

It's been a big news week for Nokia - but we find time for everything else as well, plus an interview with the IMPDA's Chris Caudle about the challenges facing mobile phone dealers.