There’ll be 676 million 4G LTE handsets shipped worldwide in 2015, according to new figures from ABI Research.

That’s an increase of 204 million units from this year.

Vodafone has started rolling out Carrier Aggregation technology in the UK, which offers 4G users the ability to enjoy data speeds that are up to three times faster than conventional 4G connections.

Carrier Aggregation, also known as LTE Advanced (LTE-A) or 4.5G, allows network operators to combine parts of their radio spectrum for faster connections.

A new research report from Berg Insight says the market for mobile machine-to-machine (M2M) communications has begun to move from the 2G to 3G and 4G technologies.

Although cellular M2M devices on HSPA and LTE networks are expected to account for under 20% of the global market by the end of 2014, they’re forecast to dominate with more than 50% by 2018. Meanwhile, shipments of 3G/4G M2M devices are expected to overtake 2G M2M in 2017.

EE says it’s planning to allow UK customers to make voice calls over WiFi connections “with a higher quality and greater degree of reliability than unmanaged VoIP services”.

Calls will be available via the standard dialler on the customer’s smartphone, with SMS messaging also available.

Huawei says it’s successfully run the world’s first GSM-LTE Dynamic Spectrum Sharing trial with Vodafone Spain.

It’s a technology that allows real-time changes to be made to the allocation of frequencies for 3G GSM and 4G LTE traffic.

Mark Bridge writes:

I've previously talked about my Google Nexus S and the challenges of synchronising it with Microsoft Outlook. Well, more like the problem of finding anything that'll do the job.

Mark Bridge writes:

So there I was with my Nexus S, a cup of tea and the challenge of synchronising calendar, contacts, tasks and notes from Microsoft Outlook. I’d found Syncdroid.net and its list of suggestions… and then an email arrived on my phone from the ‘Android Team’

Mark Bridge writes:

So, I’ve just upgraded to the Google Nexus S. The Samsung i9020. That was pretty easy. The local branch of Carphone Warehouse had one in stock.

It’s my first Android phone. In fact, it’s my first upgrade for a few years.

Mobile World Congress is the mobile industry event of the year. It takes place in Barcelona from 14th February this year – and The Fonecast will be heading there to listen to the keynote speeches, attend the briefings and interview many of the visitors.

Mark Bridge writes:

Every year since we started podcasting in 2006, we've used our last regular show of the year to make some predictions for the following 12 months.

This year's podcast on 22nd December was no exception.

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.