Almost 150 years ago, the International Telecommunications Union was formed after years of discussions about standards and barriers to entry, showing the same debates that dominate the industry today existed in the time of steam.

Plans for "national roaming" across the UK could help criminals, is too expensive and complex to implement, the GSMA has said.

Operators need to focus on sub-2GHz spectrum rather than look to the higher bands for forthcoming 5G technology, the CTO of Tele2 has warned, but a senior Huawei executive said high frequency spectrum was essential to meet capacity problems. 

Mobile operators in the UK will be able to deploy networks on the 700MHz frequency band after Ofcom announced plans to free up some of the airwaves currently used by digital television and wireless microphone services. 

Alcatel-Lucent is bringing LTE connectivity to Norway on the 450MHz band, as part of a pan-Scandinavia project with AINMT Holdings. 

Ofcom will hold an auction of spectrum in the “very high capacity” 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz frequency bands to meet the growing demands of mobile broadband services in the UK. 

Operators and vendors are a pessimistic bunch when you speak to them about data growth. While it has been a boon for their industries, the downside is looming: the dreaded capacity crunch. Soaring video consumption and social networking on ever more affordable smart devices could lead to the day where everything freezes up.

UK MVNO 24 Seven has released a SIM-based solution that enables national roaming, as the debate around government plans to introduce the service rages on.

The proposal from the UK government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to boost mobile coverage across the country has been criticised as challenging, complex and damaging to the industry. 

Nokia Networks has conducted a live network trial of new software that improves smartphone performance on 3G networks.

Unlicensed spectrum technology company NWave has become the latest to join the UK-based Weightless special interest group to develop the IoT standard.

White space technology could be rolled out across the UK as early as next year, with regulator Ofcom revealing there are seven trials taking place involving the likes of Google and Microsoft. 

Ericsson, Singtel and Qualcomm have achieved the world’s first LTE FDD/TDD carrier aggregation using commercially-available hardware and software. 

Vodafone has rolled out HD voice technology to 3G and 4G customers on its UK network.

Broadcasters and wireless microphones should be pushed off the 700MHz band by 2020 to make way for European wireless broadband services, the European Commission has heard.

TeliaSonera and cableco DNA have announced a mobile network sharing agreement in rural Finland.

TeliaSonera subsidiary Moldcell has acquired licenses for new 800MHz and 1,800MHz frequency bands in Moldova.

Vodafone New Zealand has teamed up with Nokia Networks to deploy the country's first commercial 700MHz LTE network.

Europe was late to the 4G party but the UK was even later, with a combination of squabbling operators and lack of spectrum delaying the rollout of LTE. But according to new figures this week, there are now six million 4G LTE subscribers, amounting to around eight percent of all mobile subscriptions.

The GSMA has repeated its plea for harmonised spectrum to satisfy the expected surge in data usage, ahead of next year's crucial World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC).