This year's Communications Market Report from telecomms regulator Ofcom has revealed a surge in smartphone ownership. In June 2010, 26.5% of people in the UK said they had a smartphone, more than double the number two years previously. Growth in the last 12 months was particularly strong, up 81% from 7.2 million users in May 2009 to 12.8 million in May 2010.

Mark Bridge writes:

The adage that “the customer is always right” has apparently been disproved by a recent survey of mobile phone users.

Mobile News reports that virtual networks Virgin Mobile and Tesco Mobile outperformed their network partners in a recent customer satisfaction survey carried out by research firm YouGov for price comparison website uSwitch.

If there was one thing that mobile security expert Jack Wraith could say to every new mobile phone owner, it would be "go and register the phone on immobilise.com". That's the UK's national property register, which is linked to the Police national mobile property database.

Jack is our guest in this week's podcast. As the man who heads the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum and the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum he's well-placed to offer an informed opinion.

With smartphone security hitting the headlines this month, The Fonecast talks to mobile security expert Jack Wraith, who heads the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum and the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum. He explains what the problems are, how consumers can protect themselves… and what the industry can do to help.

Plus, as usual, there's a review of the week's other major mobile industry news. Oracle, Google, JAG, Yes Telecom, Vodafone, O2, Motorola, Qualcomm, Nokia, BlackBerry and – rather tenuously – Catherine Zeta-Jones's bottom are all discussed by Iain, James and Mark.

Mark Bridge writes:

I knew I’d seen it before. Towards the end of last week I read about a study from the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania that said it was pretty easy to identify passwords from smudges on touchscreen mobile phones.