UK telecoms group BT and mobile network operator EE have agreed a takeover deal.

It comes less than two months after the companies entered into exclusive negotiations with each other.

Jon Carter of Deutsche Telekom has provided us with his ‘Connected Home’ predictions for 2015:

Connected home products and services rely on different communication standards, be it ZigBee, HomeMatic or Z-Wave. Only platforms which both handle established standards and are able to learn new protocols will hold their ground in the market in 2015. Customers don’t want to be limited in their product choices or care about compatibility issues. Integrating any device into a connected home setup needs to be smooth and simple.

BT Group plc says it’s entered into an exclusivity agreement with Deutsche Telekom and Orange, allowing it to negotiate a possible acquisition of EE’s UK mobile business.

It originally responded to press speculation with a statement last month.

Earlier this week BT announced it had been contacted by shareholders in two UK mobile network operators about a possible transaction in which BT could acquire their UK mobile business. It revealed one of those companies was O2 but didn’t name the second network.

Deutsche Telekom and Orange, which jointly own UK network EE, have now confirmed they are the other network having talks with BT.

Jürgen Hase of Deutsche Telekom writes:

The Smart City is on its way. All over the world more and more cities are connecting all areas of their infrastructure. Pisa in Tuscany, for example, aims to improve its traffic management with a machine-to-machine (M2M) solution and a Big Data service provided by Deutsche Telekom.

Mark Bridge writes:

A report in The Independent says Apple won't be putting a Near Field Communication chip in the next version of the iPhone. Although Apple is thought to be working on its own NFC service connected to iTunes, it's said to be "concerned by the lack of a clear standard across the industry".

On the surface, that phrase doesn’t make sense.

Mark Bridge writes:

Sadly we’re ending the week with yet another natural disaster. Barely two weeks after New Zealand’s earthquake comes news of Japan’s biggest quake in living memory.

Still, I’m here to talk about mobile phones, so – after a quick mention of the great work being done by the Red Cross – I’ll get on with it.

Mark Bridge writes:

In recent weeks there’s been a lot of talk about the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft. But taking a look at today’s Form 20-F - the annual report that Nokia is filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission - provides a valuable reminder that nothing’s set in stone.

Mark Bridge writes:

The final news story in this week's podcast is best described as an update from last week's programme. The story itself remains the same but the presentation style has been changed dramatically.

Mark Bridge writes:

For the last couple of months we've been running a survey on TheFonecast.com with the title “What's the biggest challenge facing mobile phone manufacturers?”

The answer appears to be very clear. According to 60% of respondents, 'battery life' is the major issue for mobile manufacturers.

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.