Mark Bridge writes:

Is there any product that offers as much potential for additional sales as the mobile phone?

When I visit a coffee shop to buy a coffee, I’m often asked “would you like any pastries or muffins with that?”

On the one occasion that I bought a new car, I was offered the option of paying extra for different colours, for floor mats and for a fancy stereo. When you buy a DVD player or a games console, it’s pretty obvious you’ll be paying extra for entertainment.

Yet, when you consider the variety of add-ons available in the mobile industry, I’d say smartphones were in a league of their own.

It’s reported that investment firm KKR is talking to Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom about a possible takeover of the Everything Everywhere business in the UK.

Tom Alexander, who left his role as Everything Everywhere’s CEO a year ago, is said to be leading the bid.

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has opened a consultation about the business connectivity market.

It’s looking at the ‘leased lines’ that are used to transfer large volumes of data by broadband providers, mobile network operators, businesses and public sector organisations. In many cases these wholesale connections are leased from BT.

Mark Bridge writes:

Oh, how cheerful we were last Monday. Apple previewed iOS6, which will bring mobile tickets (and 200 other new features) to the iPhone and iPad this autumn. Vodafone cut the cost of using your phone in Europe with its flat-rate £3-per-day EuroTraveller deal and a few days later Three came up with its own ‘unlimited’ European data roaming.

Yet by the end of the week there were fewer smiles in the mobile industry.

Charles Dunstone, chairman and co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, has been awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List “for services to the Mobile Communications Industry and to charity”.

Dr Michael Short, president of the Institution of Engineering & Technology and vice president at Telefónica Europe, is to receive a CBE.