Nokia has won a deal to integrate its cloud-based HERE navigation and mapping platform into Toyota’s Touch & Go in-car digital navigation systems.

The move is a win for the troubled Finnish handset maker, which has steadily fallen behind in the smartphones race in recent years, particularly in Europe, and is still experiencing heavy losses.

There is a battle looming between the collection and use of big data and the “little” data mined from individual users on a regular and frequently less than transparent basis.

The one will affect the other and not necessarily favourably if a new report from Ovum’s principal analyst Mark Little is anything to go by.

The GSMA has reinforced its commitment to protecting the privacy of mobile app users by introducing its new Accountability Framework.

The industry body said it hopes the framework will be adopted by all players in the mobile ecosystem.

With LTE round the corner, mobile operators must take on OTT players.

They have tolerated networks being used to deliver bandwidth hungry IP based applications with little compensation. That model must change.

There is considerable interest in vacant TV white space frequencies released by analogue switch off but European regulators still do not allow their use for telecoms.

Their reluctance stems from concern over possible interference with existing television bands.

FT-Orange, EE’s parent with Deutsche Telekom, told Mobile Europe there is no prospect of selling the UK joint venture to AT&T and sees no credibility in articles suggesting this.

Numerous recent articles in national and trade publications discuss the possibility of AT&T buying either EE or Dutch operator KPN.

With the UK's 4G LTE auction for licenses in the 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum bands underway, mobile operator Three has surprised its rivals by promising to offer customers the next gen service for free.

The smallest operator in the UK currently, Three caught a lucky break last year when Ofcom ordered rival operator EE to sell 2x15MHz of its 1800MHz spectrum to it as a condition of regulatory approval for the Orange-T-Mobile merger that formed the company.

The rising popularity of discount coupons will be boosted by the ability to redeem them using mobile phones or tablets.

A new report from Juniper Research – ‘Mobile Coupons – The Smart Way to Shop’ - estimates growth will double last year’s figures reaching 10 billion coupons this year.

LTE is happening across Europe, bringing with it the need for operators to make important decisions about all elements of network management.

This week in Paris, for example, SFR launched a service in the business area La Défense while France Telecom-Orange said it would start to roll-out services in the Opera region in April and the whole of the French capital by the end of the year.

European mobile operators are doing their bit to mitigate the effects of natural disasters or emergencies by making it easier to alert people of possible danger and find them if they are in trouble.

In something of a ‘big brother’ solution, European governments are asking mobile operators to deploy the infrastructure and technical solutions able to broadcast simple mobile messages to all their subscribers thereby improving emergency responses and public warning systems.

In a world where data is the ‘new oil’, telcos could lose out if they cede control of their customer information to OTT players, according to a new report.

This is especially true in the growing NFC sector where telcos concentrate on the wrong things, suggests “Mobile NFC – what’s all the hype about”, a report from management consultancy Arthur D Little.

Several surprise companies are bidding for spectrum in the UK’s long awaited 4G LTE auctions – one of which is little known managed services provider MLL Telecom.

The company specializes in designing, building and managing bespoke mobile networks and infrastructure for British operators as well as public and private enterprises.

Its goal in bidding for spectrum is to complement existing its existing 32 and 40Gbit spectrum which it uses to build wireless networks.