It’s reported that EE is refunding around £1 million to customers who were charged VAT in error. People who travelled outside Europe and used their phones to go online were apparently charged VAT, although this should only apply to usage inside the EU.

Only 0.5% of EE’s customers were affected by the problem, which happened because the company’s billing system hadn’t been set up correctly.

Sajid Javid MP, the UK Government Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has announced what’s described as a “landmark deal” with the ‘big four’ mobile networks to improve coverage.

It follows a three-week consultation period that involved the government proposing mandated ‘national roaming’ as one of the options to improve rural coverage in areas where some networks provided service but others didn’t.

UK communications regulator Ofcom says Sharon White will become its new Chief Executive from late March next year.

She’s currently Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury, where she is responsible for managing public finance.

It's time for another news-packed mobile industry podcast from TheFonecast.com, starting with the European Parliament's latest ruling on in-car emergency communication.

After that we're talking about Microsoft's departure from the Nook eBook business, Three UK's 4G growth, Acer's tablet-sized phone, EE's rural coverage solution and some interesting new research about mobile-enabled customer service.

The European Parliament has moved closer to mandating the installation of an emergency call system in all new cars and smaller commercial vehicles.

Earlier this week MEPs voted to require all new car models to have its eCall system installed from 31st March 2018. They’d originally hoped to mandate eCall from 2015.