Telefónica has released its quarterly results along with figures for the first three-quarters of its financial year.

Overall, the company reported a 5.4% increase in revenue to 46.7 billion Euro (£39.9 billion) for the nine-month period and a 6% rise in customer numbers to almost 300 million fixed-line and mobile connections worldwide.

Nigel Cranswick, a former policeman from South Yorkshire, has been jailed for over ten years today for his part in an attempted £330 million VAT fraud. He and six others, including his sister and brother-in-law, were caught by investigators from HM Revenue & Customs.

They’d set up a business called Ideas 2 Go Ltd and falsely claimed they’d generated billions of pounds in turnover selling mobile phones and computer software.

Online marketplace eBay.co.uk has submitted a ‘mobile manifesto’ to the UK government today, listing seven areas of focus that will boost the UK's economic recovery by supporting the digital communications industry.

It points out that a recent report prepared for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimated the UK’s digital communications industry is worth over £50 billion to the UK economy and employs 531,000 UK workers.

Mark Bridge writes:

We’ve previously talked on The Fonecast about ‘superphones’ - a relatively arbitrary description for high-end smartphones. Google described its Nexus One as a superphone when it was launched at the beginning of 2010 - although it’s also what Dr Who’s companion called her upgraded Nokia 3200 in 2005.

Now Strategy Analytics has a definition and a growth forecast.

Mark Bridge writes:

This week’s podcast feature takes a fresh look at security on mobile phones. I’ve been talking to Eddy Willems, Security Evangelist at G Data, about the challenges and solutions facing smartphone users. Both Eddy and his current employer have been active in digital security for a couple of decades, so there’s plenty of experience under their respective belts.