Telecoms regulator Ofcom has approved Everything Everywhere’s plans to use its existing 1800MHz spectrum for delivering 4G services. Everything Everywhere applied to Ofcom in November last year with a proposal to change its current licences.

Following a consultation, Ofcom has concluded that these changes will deliver significant benefits to consumers without distorting competition or giving Everything Everywhere anything more than a brief advantage.

87 million 4G-equipped mobile devices are expected to ship worldwide this year, according to figures from ABI Research. That’s a 294% increase from last year’s total of 4G smartphones, USB dongles, tablets, portable WiFi hotspots and wireless broadband modems.

Most are expected to be LTE devices, with WiMAX now seeing less support.

Google is selling its 6.5% share in US-based 4G WiMAX network operator Clearwire for $47 million, substantially less than the $500 million it originally paid in 2008.

In a statement, it said “Google periodically rebalances its investments based on its goals and its evaluation of market conditions”.

The International Telecommunications Union, which is the United Nations agency for IT and telecoms, has confirmed the specifications for next-generation mobile technologies. This will be known as IMT-Advanced and will include ‘LTE-Advanced’ and ‘WirelessMAN-Advanced’ (which is also known as Mobile WiMAX Release 2).

Although WiMAX, LTE and HSPA+ are often described as a ‘4G’ service, the ITU sees IMT-Advanced as being the true fourth-generation evolution.

Last week, Nokia Siemens Networks announced plans for reorganisation, which involved massive cost savings and around 17,000 jobs being cut.

Business areas that aren’t consistent with the new strategy were “planned to be divested or managed for value”.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.