Orange UK has revealed an NFC-based loyalty scheme called ‘Quick Tap Treats’ in partnership with the EAT restaurant chain.

Customers with a compatible NFC-equipped Orange phone will be able to to tap their handset against a special poster at any participating EAT outlet. They’ll then be directed to a mobile game, with winners receiving a voucher for a free treat. Options include free food, free drinks and ‘upgrades’ to larger portions.

Everything Everywhere, which runs the Orange and T-Mobile networks in the UK, has announced its plans for introducing 4G LTE coverage to the UK.

It’s currently upgraded over half its UK network to HSPA+, the ‘3.5G’ service that provides up to 50% faster data speeds than standard 3G connections.

Everything Everywhere, which runs the UK networks of T-Mobile and Orange, has announced its financial results for the final quarter and full year of 2011.

It says service revenue was up 2.1% if the effects of Mobile Termination Rate cuts are ignored - or down 2.1% when the impact of MTR cuts is included.

We start this week's podcast with a conversation about Facebook before moving on to the legal battle between Motorola and Apple, some interesting quarterly results, Google's Android watchdog, jobs, ads... and much more.

Mark Bridge writes:

Facebook’s certainly had its share of privacy concerns – but last week the social network revealed plans to go public in a very different way. It formally announced its intention to launch on the stock market; what is known in the USA as an Initial Public Offering. The IPO is expected to raise around $5 billion, although that’ll just be a fraction of the total (and as yet undisclosed) value of the company.