New research published by WiFi provider The Cloud shows that more than 10 million Brits use public WiFi each week via smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

That figure, which comes from data collected by market research company Canadean in November 2012, equates to 22% of the UK adult population.

One of the biggest companies meeting the UK's demand for public WiFi is The Cloud, which has spent the last few years putting its network into thousands of venues.

In this programme we interview Vince Russell, managing director of The Cloud, to discover what the company's doing... and to see whether mobile operators should be worried.

UK pub company Punch Taverns has arranged a deal with The Cloud to install free WiFi into its pubs.

A number of its properties already have WiFi; they will now be transferred onto the new arrangement, which includes Punch covering the landlord’s running costs for two years.

O2 says its UK network carried over 440 million SMS text messages on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, which was a 10% increase on last year’s figures.

In addition, over 200 million calls were made via O2 UK during the 48-hour period.

The City of London Corporation has extended its partnership with WiFi provider The Cloud, enabling anyone to enjoy unlimited free WiFi inside the ‘Square Mile’ financial district.

There’s been a free WiFi service available in the City of London since 2007, although until now it’s only been free for the first 15 minutes. A temporary arrangement to provide unlimited access during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games saw user numbers almost double compared with the previous three months.

Mark Bridge writes:

At the beginning of the 21st century I moved from Vodafone to work for its Vizzavi multimedia portal, wooed by talk of context-specific advertising that would one day use a customer’s location and search history to ensure any ads were precisely targeted. And I’m not the only person who’s been seduced. Consumers, ad agencies, client companies and mobile networks have all been promised much by mobile marketing.

Yet more than a decade later that kind of sophistication seems to be lacking from most mobile marketing messages.

Mark Bridge writes:

This week there was only one set of financial results that attracted the mainstream tech media. Apple reported the first drop in quarterly profit for several years as figures fell by 18% to around £6.1 billion. On the positive side, it made around £6.1 billion profit. It also announced dates for its developer conference in June and promised a new version of iOS.

James Rosewell writes:

Due to growth in staff numbers my business (51Degrees.mobi) is in the process of moving offices. Coincidentally I'm also moving our home broadband. It’s not been a pleasant experience.

This got me thinking, because a few weeks ago on thefonecast.com we discussed why Ofcom isn’t treating Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) in the same way as fixed-line termination rates. The mobile industry justifies higher MTRs on the assumption that a mobile network costs more to run than a fixed-line network. It was certainly true when the fixed costs of running a mobile network had to be shared across a relatively small number of customers, even if they did pay a fortune for their contracts and terminals. Intuitively I'd say that’s just not true anymore.

Mark Bridge writes:

The past few days have seen the arrival of two familiar seasons. Not only has the sun peeked its head from behind the clouds in an approximation of Spring but the mobile industry has been releasing its quarterly results.

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s claimed there’s recently been some dodgy equine activity in the mobile industry. No, I’m not talking about the dancing pony that promoted Three UK. I’m not even making lasagne jokes. I’m talking about the ‘Trojan horse’ threatening to monopolise the mobile marketplace.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.