This week's headline-grabbing product launch is the Motorola Moto G, which promises a decent Android smartphone at a very attractive price.

We also discuss new rules about mobile phones on planes, a new campaign to ban hands-free calls in cars, falling SMS revenue, mobile wallets and BlackBerry's $1 million investment.

Ofcom has announced the organisations that’ll take part in its trial of ‘white space’ wireless technology. The so-called ‘white spaces’ are temporarily unused gaps in the digital terrestrial TV spectrum.

Technology using these spaces won’t need a licence but will been to check that the frequency is unused before starting transmission.

A new research report from Berg Insight expects shipments of consumer-focussed M2M devices to increase from 5.3 million worldwide last year to 13.8 million in 2017. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 21.1%.

It notes that eBook readers and personal navigation devices are the most common consumer M2M devices.

The UK government’s Department of Energy & Climate Change has announced details of the companies that’ll be responsible for the country’s rollout of ‘smart’ gas and electricity meters.

53 million smart meters in homes and small businesses will be connected to the business systems of energy suppliers, network operators and energy service companies, enabling consumers to benefit from accurate bills and new tariffs without the need for meter reading visits.

Telefónica UK has been chosen as one of the preferred communications service providers for the UK’s smart meter roll-out. Subject to contract, it’ll provide communications services across the Centre and South regions in a deal worth £1.5 billion over 15 years.

The provider for the North region is infrastructure company Arqiva, with a deal worth £625 million over 15 years.