UK-based communications service specialist Azzurri Communications has appointed Chris Jagusz as its new Chief Executive Officer. He’ll join at the end of the summer.

Mr Jagusz was previously Managing Director at SSE Telecoms.

Managed communications service specialist Azzurri Communications says its CEO is stepping down at the end of the current financial year.

It follows a refinancing process that saw the company’s ‘senior debt’ reduced to £25 million from around £103 million.

New research commissioned by Azzurri Communications and carried out by Vanson Bourne has found that most medium and large-sized UK businesses are already using or planning to use Unified Communications.

In total, 76% of respondents said they were pursuing a UC strategy.

Azzurri Communications, which provides voice, data and mobile managed services in the UK, has announced the completion of its planned refinancing process. It says this puts the business in a strong and stable position, with new funding facilities to run until June 2014.

In addition, it’s made some new senior appointments.

The second quarter of this year was the best quarter ever for connections via the O2 UK 'partner channel', according to a statement from the company today. Blackberry connections through partners also reached a new quarterly high, as did connections via O2 Centre of Excellence partners and both of O2's strategic partners (Avenir and Azzurri).

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week, French iOS security researcher pod2g revealed a potential security risk with the Apple iPhone’s handling of SMS text messages.

All text messages can be sent with an optional ‘reply to’ telephone number that’s different from the sender’s number. The majority of text messages don’t use this feature - and many phones either ignore the extra data or display both numbers - but Apple’s iOS seems to handle it in a potentially risky way.

Kerry Butters writes:

When deciding on which mobile device is the right one for your business, there are a few things to take into consideration. Firstly, are you buying a handset for yourself or for others who work in the business, or are you considering running a BYOD (bring your own device) scheme.

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s been a busy day for Everything Everywhere. Alongside its 4G news came rumours that the company was planning a rebrand, with ‘Orange’ and ‘T-Mobile’ eventually being dropped in favour of the ‘Everything Everywhere’ branding.

There’s now an official statement from Everything Everywhere:

Mark Bridge writes:

Our first week of Olympics-free news didn’t start well for many people. Google said it was planning to reduce the number of employees at its Motorola Mobility subsidiary by around a fifth, cutting approximately 4,000 employees in a bid to return its mobile phone business to profitability.

Mark Bridge writes:

So, that’s it. Today’s the day Adobe Flash Player - the preferred video player for many web sites - leaves the Google Play store.

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.