Mark Bridge writes:

Today’s podcast feature is a personal look at the cost of mobile ‘roaming’ in France.

At the beginning of July 2011 the rate for European roaming charges fell to a maximum of 38p per minute (incl. VAT) for calls made while abroad in the EU – and 12p per minute for calls received. There’s also a maximum 12p charge for sending text messages.

Skype has agreed to buy GroupMe, a New York-based company that provides group messaging services on mobile phones.

GroupMe, which was only founded a year ago, lets a user set up text message groups and conference calls from their mobile phone. The news follows Skype's acquisition of mobile video provider Qik - and Microsoft's planned acquisition of Skype itself.

Mark Bridge writes:

Voice over IP – the ability to make phone calls over the internet - is a topic we covered in our first-ever podcast five years ago. At times it promised to change the way we used mobile phones... so what's been happening?

I've been talking to Tanveer Sharif, CEO and co-founder of international call service Vopium, to learn more.

A few years ago, VoIP – the ability to make calls over the internet - promised to change the way mobile phones were used. Tanveer Sharif, CEO and co-founder of international call service Vopium, joins us this week to talk about the subject.

Allot Communications, a company that specialises in bandwidth management for fixed and mobile broadband service providers, has published its Allot MobileTrends Report for the first half of 2011.

It shows that mobile data bandwidth usage (based on data from its mobile operator customers) has grown by 77% during H1 2011.