A ‘solar superstorm’ could disrupt satellite navigation systems, electricity supplies and high-frequency radio communications in the UK - but the nation’s mobile phone networks should be largely unaffected.

That’s the message from the Royal Academy of Engineering, which has just published an in-depth assessment of the potential impacts of solar superstorms. These rare events - unlike other solar storms - occur every few hundred years.

Quarterly figures from Vodafone Group show service revenue declining by 2.6% year-on-year to £10.4 billion, despite data revenue increasing by 12.8%. In the UK, service revenue was down 5.2%.

The company is aiming to cut £300 million from its costs during the next financial year.

Sony’s latest quarterly results show the electronics company making a loss of 10.8 billion yen (£73.3 million) for the three months until 31st December 2012, although that’s considerably less than the 159 billion yen loss from the same quarter a year before.

Sales and operating revenue rose 6.9% year-on-year to ¥1,948 billion, helped by the takeover of Sony Mobile.

More than 25 billion songs have been downloaded from the Apple iTunes store since it opened ten years ago, according to an announcement this week.

Apple has given Phillip Lüpke, who downloaded the 25 billionth song, a €10,000 iTunes Gift Card as a reward.

Voice over IP service Skype has announced the first countries where customers will be able to use its direct mobile operator billing option. This will let customers pay for Skype credit by charging it to their mobile phone account.

The facility has just been launched in Russia and will soon be enabled in the USA and Canada as well.