It is impossible to open the business pages without some reminder of the huge importance of patents to the telecoms industry. The government’s proposal to introduce a ten per cent rate of corporation tax for patent-related profits is designed to encourage investment in innovation in the UK, and further highlights the opportunities for those who get patent value right. This could mean that some businesses should now take a greater interest in filing patents, and others will want to review their established arrangements to make the most of the proposals.

According to UK regulator Ofcom, we have become a ‘smartphone nation’, ultra-connected night and day via the magic of mobile technology. But the evidence suggests that the UK is falling behind the rest of the world in providing the kind of networks needed to support the explosion in mobile device usage and data consumption.

Growth in the Long-term Evolution (LTE) market is accelerating. Operators are moving forward with plans and auctions taking place, helping the technology to become a global standard. As of August this year, operators had launched 24 commercial networks in 16 countries worldwide. Only one year ago, the total was three, and the number is expected to grow to 71 by the end of this year, according to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA).

When Netflix decided to separate DVD delivery from its video streaming service, consumers rebelled. Many dropped both services and the company lost half its value on Wall Street. Trouble like this is commonplace for cable TV and satellite providers, which, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), both consistently rank low in customer satisfaction surveys.

To have a future strategy, means to have a mobile strategy, says Ian Carrington, mobile advertising sales director at Google.

Joey Barton and his fellow sportsmen might inadvertently be pioneering the future shape of the mobile communications industry. In the past couple of weeks, the maverick Newcastle United player has gone from zero to hero, at least in the eyes of Twitter users, as he dramatically increased his followers to 330,000 and counting. In doing so, he is participating in a fast-growing trend which may impact how mobile operators brand and market their services in the future.

While mCommerce implementations are relatively new, successes such as Safaricom in Kenya, paybox in Austria, Compass Bank in the United States, mpass in Germany and others provide a solid set of lessons learned for mobile operators, enterprises and financial institutions.

With mobile data traffic expected to double annually, small cell base stations are set to play an important role in expanding the capacity of wireless networks. Mobile operators are realizing that to meet the demands for data, video and application access caused by smart phones and other devices, there is a real beauty to going small.

In May, Infonetics published a report projecting that ROADMs will top 20 percent growth by 2015, making them the fast-growing segment in the optical communications transport industry.