There’s major consolidation in the US mobile industry today with news that Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA - the nation’s fourth-largest mobile operator - is planning to merge with MetroPCS. A proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile last year was unsuccessful.

The combined company, which will retain the T-Mobile name, is expected to have approximately 42.5 million subscribers. However, it will still have fewer customers than any of the top three: Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel.

Following an agreement that the UK’s new 4G mobile spectrum would be available for use by next summer, Everything Everywhere has confirmed a launch date for its own 4G service and its EE brand.

EE will launch 4G in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield on the 30th October 2012. A third of the UK population is expected to be covered by the end of the year.

Commercial WiFi specialist Wicoms and VoIP service Skype have launched a new WiFi proposition called Free Skype WiFi. It enables businesses in the UK and Ireland to offer free Skype-branded public WiFi to their customers.

Businesses can choose a number of deals with pricing from £9.99+VAT per month plus a one-off £49+VAT for the router, although there’s a free one-month trial during October.

The government and Ofcom have confirmed that the UK’s major mobile networks will be able to launch 4G mobile phone services in the first half of next year.

800MHz and 2.6GHz radio frequencies for 4G services are being made available earlier than previously expected, which means networks will be able to launch 4G within a few months of the planned spectrum auction.

In this week's podcast we're talking about Apple's apology for its Maps app, we're looking at RIM's BlackBerry 10 news and we're discussing the new UK company formed by Vodafone and O2.

As well as this there's tablet news from Barnes and Noble, there are record-breaking SIM-only contract sales and there's a new mobile-friendly OS on the loose.