UK mobile retailer Shebang Technologies Group has had a complaint against its advertising upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.

An email from the company and an offer on its website both promoted a ‘free’ mobile phone offer that was guaranteed for every customer. The ads were accompanied by images of several different handsets.

Shebang, the company behind the Go Mobile retail chain, is planning its own mobile virtual network.

The Go Mobile network will be promoted online and via Go Mobile stores. It's a prepaid service and, unlike many other MVNOs, will be available with a choice of handsets.

Mobile News reports that staff in the 40 Go Mobile stores owned by Shebang have been told they must either join its franchise program, run by The Purple Partnership, or face redundancy.

Apparently 84 staff are affected; if they don't want to run their own store, they will be offered positions at other franchise stores or a redundancy package.

Iain, James and Mark look at T-Mobile's data u-turn and a collection of new services from O2, Orange and first direct. There's also an interview with Dave Golding about the new Cellebrite Touch device designed to help dealers, retailers and network operators.

Tanny Price has left her role at Brightstar Europe to run the business-to-business division of Daventry-based distribution company Shebang, according to a report in Mobile News.

She’d joined Brightstar in June 2009 after 11 years with Avenir Telecom.

Mark Bridge writes:

A couple of weeks ago I was wandering through London, wondering whether mobile streaming could erode personal privacy… and whether anyone cared.

But there’s a positive site to the immediacy of streaming, as Bambuser reminded me today.

Mark Bridge writes:

James's recent trip down memory lane reminded me of a moment in 1998 when a major mobile phone manufacturer promised phones that 'gave you wings'. No, not Red Bull. No, not Red Bull Racing partner LG. It was Motorola.

James Rosewell writes:

Whilst flicking through my drawer full of old handsets I thought back to a time when Apple produced a new MP3 player, newspaper editors didn't know what a smart phone was, and Android was only a press release. A quick flick through YouTube threw up the following interview with Microsoft's Steve Balmer offering his thoughts.

Mark Bridge writes:

This sequence of recent events involving SAP, HP and Oracle – although unconnected – seemed deserving of a simple diagram.

Mark Bridge writes:

The Google Nexus S. Search for it online and you’ll find over a million web pages talking about it.

But I don’t care about the Google Nexus S. Or the Nexus Two or the Samsung i9020 or whatever else you call it. Quite frankly, it’s not any use to me. My current rapidly-aging HTC TyTn II has more features than the Nexus S.

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.