Over a billion minutes of Skype calls have been made on the UK's 3 mobile network since the service was introduced. 3 originally launched Skype on its UK network in October 2007, making it free for all customers in May 2009. And each day, around three million minutes of free Skype-to-Skype calls are made using mobile phones on the 3 network.

In the kind of coincidence reserved for PR events, the call including the billionth minute was made by Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Minister for Digital Britain, when talking to the CEO of medical aid charity Merlin. 3 recently donated five Skypephones to Merlin so that UK-based staff could stay in touch with colleagues on the ground in Haiti.

Yorkshire-based touch technology company Peratech Limited has agreed to license its Quantum Tunnelling Composite technology to Samsung for use in 5-way 'navikeys' on mobile phones. The deal has been done with Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung's component manufacturing business.

QTC switches are force-sensitive, which means the speed of scrolling through a list or playing a game can vary depending on how hard the 5-way switch is pressed.

Voice and data company Daisy Group plc has acquired Managed Communications Limited in a deal worth £6.3 million. It's the latest in a series of acquisitions that included AT Communications, Eurotel and Redstone plc’s telecoms business last year.

Nottingham-based Managed Communications provides data networks to approximately 800 business customers.

The Carnival of the Mobilists collects an assortment of opinions from the mobile industry. It's hosted at a different website every week and is introduced by a variety of contributors.

With Mobile World Congress just around the corner, this week's 'Carnival' – the 210th edition – is a particularly full one. It's hosted by mobile consultants Indigo 102 and includes last week's Opinion piece by Mark Bridge, in which he suggested that Windows Mobile 7 wouldn't be announced at MWC.