British mobile crowd-sourcing firm OpenSignal has just raised $4 million (around £2.4 million) in a funding round led by Qualcomm, with O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Passion Capital also participating.

OpenSignal offers consumers an app that shares real-world mobile phone coverage information, enabling users to see what levels of service other people have experienced.

Even at Mobile World Congress, the relevance of the mobile network operator can sometimes be forgotten. So for a different perspective on this year's event, we spoke to Samuel Johnston from British mobile crowd-sourcing firm OpenSignal.

Samuel discussed the announcements from MWC14 and OpenSignal's latest report into 4G LTE coverage around the world, as well as giving us an exclusive insight into OpenSignal's next research subject.

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.

Yesterday afternoon at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, crowdsourced coverage map provider OpenSignal was named the UK’s most innovative mobile company.

Five finalists took place in a final pitch and judging session as part of the Smart UK Project.

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.

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 Iain and Mark look at mobile industry headlines from the last 7 days and interview Paul Smith about the cashback problems that hit Mobile Media Systems - the owner of Phoneboxdirect. They also review the Sony Ericsson W960i: an 8GB music-playing touch-screen handset.

Download this week's free podcast from TheFonecast.com to discover the mobile industry news headlines from the last seven days, including an assortment of closures, takeovers, departures and developments. The Fonecast team also reviews the new 3G-equipped Nokia 8800 Arte.

This week The Fonecast interviews Russell Raynor from Mobile Business Solutions about the problems of being a dealer, we chat to Faisal Sheikh about unlocking the Apple iPhone, we look at the week's industry headlines and we review the BlackBerry Pearl 8120.

This week Iain talks to John George from JAG about his company's recent expansion. Iain, Mark and James also discuss the week's industry headlines - including the latest iPhone and gPhone stories - and look at the new 5-megapixel Samsung G800.

We review the 3 USB modem, talk to Crispin Thomas from TMTI and Stuart Turner from Fonesure - and discuss the week's mobile industry headlines.