Vodafone is planning 12 new trials using femtocell technology to provide voice, text and mobile broadband coverage in ‘not spots’ across the UK.

It follows a trial in the Berkshire village of East Garston, where ‘open femto’ devices from Alcatel-Lucent have been installed in a handful of local properties. Further femtocells will soon be mounted on telegraph poles in partnership with BT Openreach.

Mobile network operators are facing a seven-fold increase in the cost of delivering data across their networks, according to Juniper Research.

As a result, it says these mobile networks need to deal with the costs of data delivery and the inefficiencies in base station operations if they are to remain economically viable.

This week's podcast takes a look at Everything Everywhere's departing CEO, Vodafone's security concerns, ZTE's own-brand phones, HTC's legal worries and Sony Ericsson's results. As usual, the programme is hosted by Iain Graham with James Rosewell and Mark Bridge.

Mark Bridge writes:

Much like the mainstream media, this week's news summary begins with 'voicemail hacking'. In our podcast feature on Friday we spoke to industry crime-fighter Jack Wraith about the security of voice messages. He explained how remote voicemail access was now much more secure than it was ten years ago, which is good news for everyone (except dodgy investigators).

Vodafone has issued a statement about the security of the Vodafone Sure Signal femtocell, which is available in the UK to boost signal strength indoors.

On Wednesday last week a security group called The Hacker's Choice said it had managed to reverse-engineer the equipment, enabling a modified femtocell to intercept calls made by Vodafone customers within 50 metres of the rogue device.