The Telephone Preference Service and Ofcom have introduced a new text message service that lets UK mobile users opt out of receiving unsolicited sales and marketing calls.

Mobile phone users can simply text ‘TPS’ and their email address to 78070.

New research published by UK communications regulator Ofcom shows that signing up to the Telephone Preference Service reduces the number of unsolicited ‘live’ marketing or sales calls by around a third.

Organisations are legally required to ensure they don’t call numbers registered on the TPS unless they have the consumer’s consent to contact them.

The Information Commissioner’s Office and Ofcom have published a joint action plan to tackle nuisance calls and unsolicited text messages.

Ofcom has powers to deal with ‘silent’ automated calls and abandoned calls, while the ICO is responsible for dealing with companies that make unwanted marketing calls or send SMS text messages.

Mark Bridge writes:

There's been a bit of a location-based theme in the mobile industry this week.

Hardly surprising, with a new report from Pyramid Research saying location-based advertising is becoming increasingly popular – and NAVTEQ revealing that most consumers are happy receiving promotional offers in exchange for free location-related content.

Mark Bridge writes:

Let's talk mobile payments for a moment. Not using your 'mobile wallet' in shops but simply purchasing something online. Opening your phone's web browser and placing an order. Opening an app and buying an upgraded zombie-killing mega-gun. That kind of thing.

Mark Bridge writes:

Online financial news and commentary site 24/7 Wall St has published a list of ten brands it thinks will disappear next year. Among those named on the list of doom are Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

Mark Bridge writes:

Imagine a mobile phone that can’t be built without the permission of Apple. Impossible?  Unrealistic?  Not necessarily.

This week, Apple was awarded US patent 7,966,578. It's an application that was originally filed at the end of 2007, almost a year after the iPhone was first revealed.

Mark Bridge writes:

There's more to NFC than mobile payments... and there's more to mobile payments than NFC.

The latest audio accessories from Nokia use 'contactless' NFC technology to speed up Bluetooth connections. Simply touch a compatible Nokia phone against the Play 360° loudspeaker and your music will play through the speaker. There's no need to bother with conventional Bluetooth pairing.

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.