The total number of broadband subscribers -- including DSL, cable, fiber optic, and broadband wireless platforms -- will reach 15.4 million at the end of 2012. Click here for more.

In a filing to the USA's telecoms regulator, the Communications Workers of America has called for specific conditions on the application by Verizon Wireless to purchase additional spectrum from four cable providers. Click here for more.

The UK's mobile networks will be required to fund a andpound;180 million (US$285 million) scheme that will pay for solutions to TV signal interference which could be caused by the next generation of mobile services. Click here for more.

Giesecke and Devrient (GandD) says that it is supplying NFC-capable SIM cards to N?verca, an MVNO, for Italy's very first pilot project for mobile payments launched by Banca Intesa Sanpaolo. Click here for more.

A new report finds that annual revenues generated by MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) devices built into mobile phones including sensors, audio, displays and RF will exceed $6 billion by 2016, as the mobile device market accelerates. Click here for more.

USA based Delta Air Lines says that it now offers in-flight Wi-Fi service on all Delta Shuttle flights between New York's LaGuardia Airport, Boston Logan and Washington National and on all Delta Shuttle flights between LaGuardia and Chicago O'Hare. Click here for more.

Although the release of new malware slowed in Q4, mobile malware continued to increase and recorded its busiest year to date. Click here for more.

Ericsson is buying the privately-held Canadian Wi-Fi company BelAir Networks for an undisclosed amount. Click here for more.

Panasonic Europe has unveiled its new smartphone - the ELUGA - an ultra-slim, waterproof smartphone. Click here for more.

New estimates from Ovum indicate that consumers' increasing use of IP-based social messaging services on their smartphones cost telecom operators $8.7 billion in lost SMS revenues in 2010, and $13.9 billion in 2011. Click here for more.

A new study found a strong correlation between brain dominance and the ear used to listen to a cell phone, with more than 70 percent of participants holding their cell phone up to the ear on the same side as their dominant hand. Click here for more.

Palestine Telecommunications (PalTel) has reported that its full year revenues for 2011 rose by 9.4% to reach US$522 million. Net income was also up, by 5.1% to 128 million. Click here for more.

Online book retailer, Barnes and Noble has expanded its portfolio of NOOK e-book readers with the introduction of NOOK Tablet - with 8GB of memory, at $199. Click here for more.

Summaries of short news items relating to the mobile networks. Click here for more.

USA based ATandT says that it is to start trials of a push-to-talk service on its network, powered by Kodiak Networks. Click here for more.