This week’s podcast from The Fonecast includes European & US approval for Google’s acquisition of Motorola, job cuts as Nokia restructures its manufacturing, a new type of upgrade scheme from Phones 4u and security problems for satellite phones.

As always, you can listen to the programme on our website audio player, via iTunes, by using our RSS feed or by downloading the MP3.

The European Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google. It had investigated the plans under EU Merger Regulation rules and says it approved the transaction mainly because it would not significantly modify the market situation in respect of operating systems and patents for these devices.

In the USA, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has closed its investigations into the Google/Motorola deal and a number of other patent acquisitions.

Mark Bridge writes:

I’m not the first person to point out that mobile phone patent battles are raging all around us. They’ve been going on for years.

However, the topic of FRAND patents - those designated as ‘industry standards’ and therefore required to be licensed on Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory terms - has become an increasingly newsworthy topic.

In the last couple of weeks we’ve reported on an EC investigation into Samsung’s licensing of mobile patents and a Motorola/Apple legal battle that involves FRAND licensing.

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.

A new report carried out by the Centre for Retail Research and published by retail comparison site Kelkoo says shopping on mobile devices in the UK is set to increase by 53% in the next 12 months, with an estimated £4.5 billion being spent by mobile phone this year.

As a result, the UK will be Europe’s biggest mobile shoppers for the third year running, followed by Germany (£2.7 billion) and France (£1.9 billion).