Mark Bridge writes:

The last few days have been particularly busy for UK telecoms regulator Ofcom. It started the week by announcing its rules for next year’s UK 4G mobile spectrum auction – expect services to go live in around six months – and it ended the week with plans to avoid a 5G capacity crunch.

The UK's 4G spectrum auctions are given a start date, while RIM reveals the launch day for its BlackBerry 10 platform.

This week's podcast also covers the patent deal between Apple and HTC, the departure of Windows Live Messenger, the success of the Samsung Galaxy SIII and some mobile payment innovation.

Apple and HTC have issued a joint statement that says they’ve agreed to dismiss all current lawsuits and have put a ten-year license agreement in place to cover current and future patents. Full details of the settlement haven’t been revealed.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said “We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC. We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.”

Microsoft has officially revealed Windows Phone 8, its mobile operating system that’ll be available on previously-announced smartphones from Nokia, Samsung and HTC from next month.

The company says Windows Phone 8 is built to work seamlessly with Windows 8 computers, Microsoft Surface tablet devices, the Xbox 360 game console and the SkyDrive cloud storage service.

Mark Bridge writes:

In many ways it’s been a week of big news without big surprises. Apple announced the much-rumoured iPad mini, which is just like an iPad but smaller. It also introduced a fourth-generation update to its larger iPad, promising more speed and more 4G connectivity.