This week’s podcast from The Fonecast starts with a look at Barclays Pingit, the new UK mobile payment service that’ll let almost anyone send and receive money from a smartphone. We then move on to Ofcom’s plans to cut mobile termination rates before discussing camera technology, new handsets, patents, NFC tickets and plenty of other topics.

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. Alternatively, take advantage of the Android, iOS or webOS Stitcher Radio app and stream the podcast to your mobile phone.

Barclays introduces person-to-person mobile money transfers to the UK, Ofcom gets the go-ahead to cut wholesale interconnection charges, a handful of new phones are announced ahead of Mobile World Congress... plus the rest of the week's big news.

Mark Bridge writes:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So said Sir Arthur C Clarke.

Last week’s magic was supplied by imaging company Scalado, which announced a new product called ‘Remove’. The clue’s in the name: it can automatically remove unwanted people from photos taken on a mobile phone. Expect to see it on a handset near you before too long.

Last March, Ofcom published its plans for Wholesale Mobile Voice Call Termination charges; the inter-company ‘mobile termination rates’ paid when calls are connected from fixed-line phones to mobile phones. It set a decreasing scale of charges for UK network operators.

Everything Everywhere, BT, Hutchison 3G UK and Vodafone all appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, arguing that the MTR changes unfairly favoured their competitors.

There are some interesting partnerships discussed in today’s podcast, including bada & Tizen, Intel & Motorola and LG & Microsoft. Plus there’s the rest of the week’s mobile industry news, from UK 4G coverage to Apple’s riotous iPhone launch in China.

You can listen to this week’s edition of The Fonecast on our website audio player, via iTunes, by subscribing to our RSS feed or by downloading the MP3.