The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared the potential £12.5 billion sale of EE to BT. A provisional decision was announced in October last year.

It means that the BT/EE merger is now likely to be completed on 29th January.

EE is reported to be discontinuing its Orange and T-Mobile tariffs for new connections and upgrades, according to Mobile News.

Although existing customers can continue with their Orange and T-Mobile deals, they’ll now need to move to an EE tariff if they want to upgrade.

Last year AT&T, T‑Mobile and Verizon rolled out their Isis mobile payment service across the USA.

However, recent international news headlines have used the acronym ISIS to refer to a group of fighters in Syria and Iraq.

Ofcom has published the volume of complaints made against mobile phone network operators, fixed-line phone providers, broadband companies and pay TV services between January and March 2014.

It’s the regulator’s thirteenth quarterly report of complaint data.

Last week, Orange UK closed its online shop, online customer service and online account management, moving them all to the EE web site.

You might say the future is starting to look less bright for the Orange brand in the UK.

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 edition of The Fonecast previews the MOTO W233 Renew, which is made from recycled plastic bottles. Plus, as usual, we'll be taking our regular look at the latest news headlines from the mobile industry.

In this week's edition of The Fonecast we welcome 2009 with a review of the top stories from 2008. And, as usual, we'll also be taking a look at the current mobile news headlines from the industry.

We bid farewell to 2008 in this week's edition of The Fonecast. As well as our usual look at the latest mobile news we also predict what'll be hitting the headlines in 2009... and we revisit our predictions from 12 months ago.

In The Fonecast this week we talk to Chris Caudle from the IMPDA about his criticisms of O2 and his hopes for the industry's future in 2009. There's also a preview of the Android-powered Kogan Agora Pro and our usual off-beat look at the latest mobile headlines.

In The Fonecast this week we're talking to Kari Rantanen, who is director of sales and marketing for Nokia's new Smart Home Program. There's a look at mobile industry headlines from the last seven days and a quick preview of the young-at-heart Samsung Tobi handset.