Figures from the GSMA reveal that more than 72,000 delegates, exhibitors, contractors and media representatives attended Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year.

That’s an 8% increase on last year’s total, setting a new record.

Just over a week before Mobile World Congress 2013 begins in Barcelona, the GSMA has been involved in the opening of another MWC.

This is the Mobile World Centre - officially known as the Mobile World Centre Barcelona Espacio Movistar - and, unlike Mobile World Congress, it’s designed for consumers as well as for people working in the mobile communications industry.

Smartphone penetration across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom hit 54.6% during the three-month period from August to the end of October 2012, according to the comScore MobiLens service. It found that Spain had the highest smartphone penetration in Europe (63.2% of mobile phone users) followed by the UK at 62.3%.

Spain also had the most dramatic growth, up almost 15 percentage points from last year.

France Telecom-Orange has formed a global strategic partnership with mobile security company Lookout.

From early next year, Orange customers in France, Slovakia, Spain and the UK - along with EE and T-Mobile customers in the UK - will have the Lookout Mobile Security application installed as standard on selected new Android devices. The software will help consumers protect their smartphones against malware, data loss, privacy threats and loss or theft.

Mark Bridge writes:

As the end of the year approaches, so the volume of ‘real news’ tends to reduce as it’s replaced by annual reviews and seasonal surveys. We’ll be joining in with our predictions for 2013 in a few weeks’ time... but first, here’s a look back at the biggest stories from the past seven days.