This week's edition of The Fonecast starts with a look at the EC's plans for European roaming charges. We then talk about payments and patents, apps and advertising... before finishing with a story about a kettle that'll charge your phone.

As always, you can download this week’s show from iTunes or you can listen to the podcast by using the audio player on our website. There's an MP3 podcast RSS feed as well.

Mark Bridge writes:

Roaming charges are back in the news this week. Not the latest round of price cuts (or, to be technically correct, lower price caps) but the European Commission's plans for the future. As well as continuing the downward pricing trend for a few more years, Neelie Kroes also wants wholesale interconnection at capped rates and the option of a separate 'roaming contract' when you travel abroad.

In January the Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints against a Three UK leaflet that claimed "No other network gives you more for £10."

Now another similar complaint has been upheld by the ASA against Three.

In this special feature we look at the current state of mobile applications and try to discover what makes a good app. You'll hear contributions from madvertise CEO Carsten Frien and 2ergo Product & Technology Director Colin McCaffery.

Last week Gartner calculated that worldwide mobile advertising revenue this year was going to be more than double last year’s total.

ABI Research has just released its own calculations - and they're also very positive. It says last year's total of almost $2 billion spent on mobile advertising worldwide will more than treble to over $7 billion in 2012.