Actor Brian Blessed is offering to record voicemail messages for the first hundred O2 UK customers who buy an HTC Windows Phone 8 handset this week.

The promotional campaign, which involves each purchaser tweeting @O2 using the hashtag #brianmail, will reward winners with a voicemail greeting recorded by the richly-voiced British actor

Orange Vallée, the part of France Telecom-Orange responsible for innovation and development, has released a free cross-network mobile app that enables users to make free voice calls, send messages and receive voicemail messages.

It’s called Libon and is available as an iOS app in 90 countries including the UK; an Android version is planned for early next year.

Mark Bridge writes:

Much like the mainstream media, this week's news summary begins with 'voicemail hacking'. In our podcast feature on Friday we spoke to industry crime-fighter Jack Wraith about the security of voice messages. He explained how remote voicemail access was now much more secure than it was ten years ago, which is good news for everyone (except dodgy investigators).

Mark Bridge writes:

In this week's podcast feature we're joined by Jack Wraith, chief executive for the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum and chairman of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum.

He talks to Iain Graham about the current state of voicemail security and the improvements to mobile security we've seen in the last few years.

As 'voicemail hacking' news stories continue, Iain Graham talks to mobile industry crime-fighter Jack Wraith. Jack discusses mobile phone security from his position as head of the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum and the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum.

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 team take a good look at the N95 8GB from Nokia, speak to Stephen Spillett about his plans for Mainline, and bring you all the news and rumours from the past 7 days.

To start the New Year the team look back on 2007, review the Motorola W377 and bring you all the festive seasons rumours and news.

This week the team takes its regular look at mobile news headlines from the last week. We revisit our predictions from 2006, make new predictions for 2008 and also review the music-playing Samsung F210.

Iain, Mark and James take a good look at the mobile industry's news headlines from the last week. There's also an interview with Nokia's Tom Erskine about the new "Nokia Comes With Music" service and a review of the Giorgio Armani–Samsung luxury mobile phone.

This week 'The Fonecast' takes its regular look at mobile industry headlines from the last 7 days. We also interview Mary-Carol Harris about the O2 Wallet project and review the new Nokia N82.