The Communication Workers Union has reached an agreement with Telefonica after the O2 UK network planned to outsource thousands of jobs to Capita.

A CWU strike ballot that was due today has now been withdrawn.

Samsung has put a 10x optical zoom lens on a smartphone, Google is acquiring navigation app Waze and the European Commission is getting ready to equip cars with an emergency call system.

We're also talking about a strike threat at O2, the risk of 'showrooming' to high-street retailers, the end of Symbian smartphones and plenty more as well.

Mark Bridge writes:

The telecommunications industry was making plenty of headlines last week – but much of it wasn’t particularly upbeat.

The debate about privacy and security continued in the wake of allegations about US agents intercepting internet traffic. Meanwhile, Nokia prepared to make its last Symbian smartphones and Tradedoubler warned that mobile devices were having a negative effect on high-street consumer loyalty.

The Communication Workers Union says Telefónica will now be cutting 1,000 jobs as it outsources O2 call centre operations to Capita.

Plans for up to 600 voluntary redundancies have been extended with a further 400 people expected to be made redundant from call centres in Bury, Glasgow, Leeds and Warrington.

Mark Bridge writes:

There’s been a lot of talk recently about PRISM, which may allow the US National Security Agency - and anyone they choose - to access some of our personal online information if it passes through the USA. It’s unclear exactly what (if anything) is being shared with whom… and given the nature of national security, we may never know.

However, alongside the possibility of governments seeing information we thought was secure, it’s also worth pointing out that we choose to share plenty of online information ourselves.