A report from Gartner says the number of mobile payment users worldwide will exceed 108.6 million in 2010, which is a 54.5% increase from last year. This represents 2.1% of all mobile phone users.

Asia/Pacific is the leading region for mobile payment, with 2.6% of all mobile users - 62.8 million people - making payments on their phones. The report also notes that the Short Message Service (SMS) is still the dominant mobile payment technology in developing and developed markets.

The UK is leading the way in mobile commerce, according to a new report from the Mobile Marketing Association. A new report from the MMA and its research partner Lightspeed Research reveals that 19% of UK consumers currently participate in mobile commerce, followed by 13% of Germans and 9% of French. Purchasing on mobile phones is led by 18 to 34-year-olds; 29% of UK consumers, 21% of German and 15% of French consumers were in this age group.

Following up on last year's question of "What's the carbon footprint of sending a text message?", The Guardian has now asked "What's the carbon footprint of making a mobile phone call?"

Climate change expert Mike Berners-Lee has considered rather more than the earlier article, factoring in phone manufacture and network administration alongside power consumption. His answer is that a minute's mobile-to-mobile call will generate 57g of carbon.

Mobile phone comparison website Rightmobilephone.co.uk has been asking teenagers about their texting habits. 19% admitting having previously sent a text message to a 'random' mobile number, while 22% said they'd typed an obscene text message and sent it to someone in their contact list without checking who the recipient was.

42% of the random texters said they sent their SMS messages because they were bored. 31% said it was 'just for fun', 11% said it was due to loneliness and 9% were dared to do so. More than half – 54% – said they'd received a reply.

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has published its Market Data Update for the last quarter of 2009. It says total revenue fell by 2.1% year-on-year across the UK's four largest mobile operators. However, it notes this was the slowest rate of annual decline during 2009.

Total call volumes across the four network operators increased by 6.3% year-on-year to 27.4 billion in Q4 2009, although roaming call volumes were down by 1.5%. The total number of messages sent reached nearly 26 billion in Q4 2009, equivalent to 367 messages per subscriber; significantly higher than the Q4 2008 figure of nearly 20.5 billion or 299 messages per subscriber.