Mark Bridge writes:

As 2011 draws to a close, many of us start looking towards 2012 and wondering what’ll be happening in the mobile phone industry. Here at The Fonecast we’ve invited a handful of industry experts and business leaders to offer us their thoughts about the coming year.

Today’s podcast contains analysis and insight from Hans Eriksson, Steve Litchfield, Dr Windsor Holden, Dr Mark Smith and Jack Wraith MBE.

Tesco is the latest company to introduce free WiFi. It’s expanding its recent WiFi trial to all Tesco Extra stores nationwide.

Customers who’ve registered a Tesco Clubcard will have unlimited access; other customers will be able to use the service free for 15 minutes every 24 hours.

The mobile hotspot router - produced by a number of manufacturers, including the Novatel and Huawei MiFi brands - is expected to sell 7.1 million units worldwide this year, according to ABI Research.

These devices, which can connect several WiFi-enabled devices to a single mobile broadband subscription, will be worth an estimated $1 billion in the shops.

Nokia and independent WiFi provider Spectrum Interactive are trialling a free WiFi service on some of the busiest streets in London, including Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road.

It’s available from today for the rest of the year from hotspot locations in 26 telephone boxes owned by Spectrum Interactive. If the trial proves a success, the companies plan a large-scale rollout across London from early 2012.

Vodafone UK is revising its price plans for sole traders and smaller businesses into set of tariffs that automatically include a number of benefits.

As well as receiving monthly allowances of data, calls and text messages that can - where appropriate - be shared between other users on the same account, Vodafone Business customers are able to use their mobile data when ‘tethered’ to a laptop or tablet and are also being given 2GB of BT Openzone WiFi per month.