Last week Telefonica UK extended its partnership with G4S Utility Services, which is part of the G4S security group.

The new five-year agreement includes the provision of up to 1.4 million O2 SIM cards for ‘smart’ gas/electricity meters and is one of the largest-ever M2M deals in the UK.

There's plenty of variety in The Fonecast this week. We start the podcast with news of MeeGo's resurrection by Finnish smartphone company Jolla before talking about a mobile network that’s giving away mobile data whenever its customers watch video advertisements.

There's also time to discuss Telefonica's recent deals, the rise of free WiFi availability, tablet-related legal action, malware in the Apple App Store and the truth behind a recent 'exploding mobile phone' story.

Seven major mobile network operators - KPN, NTT DOCOMO, Rogers, SingTel, Telefónica, Telstra and Vimpelcom - have formed an alliance that’ll see them working together on machine-to-machine (M2M) projects.

The initiative is also open to other operators.

Mark Bridge writes:

It was a good week for technology stories hitting the mainstream news, thanks to the apparent appearance of a Higgs boson, Sir Alan Sugar’s YouView online TV service and football goal-line technology.

Mobile-related news hasn’t been quite so big, although plenty of well-known names have turned up in the headlines. What’s also been turning up – rather more than usual – is the presence of WiFi.

Telefónica Digital and Visa Europe have agreed a partnership to develop new mobile commerce opportunities in the European countries where Telefónica operates.

It builds on the existing relationship between Telefonica and Visa Europe in the UK and Ireland, establishing Visa Europe as Telefónica’s preferred partner for the payment cards and associated mobile payment services.