EE has today announced plans to rollout its 4G LTE network to another 27 towns in the United Kingdom by June 2013, expanding its 4G coverage to 55% of the U.K. population. The carrier is currently the only network to offer a 4G service in the U.K., but its latest announcements comes as rivals begin making preparations for their own 4G services.

If you live in the United Kingdom and you’re planning on picking up the Xperia Z, then you might want to get your order in as early as possible. Sony is giving those who pre-order before February 27 a free pair of its MDR-1R headphones, which usually sell for $299.99 (approx. £190).

Back in September, British carrier O2 teamed up with HTC and started an initiative to reduce the number of unwanted smartphone chargers in the United Kingdom. The carrier estimated that around 70% of handset buyers already had a charger that would be compatible with their new device, and so it started selling certain HTC devices without them.

O2 is now reporting that the initiative has been a big success. 82% of customers didn’t need to purchase a charger with their smartphone, the company claims, which surpasses its initial expectations for the effort.

WhatsApp, the hugely popular cross-platform messaging system available to Android and iOS, saw out 2012 with an incredible bang. The company has announced that it processed a staggering 18 billion messages on New Year’s Eve alone, exceeding its previous record of 10 billion messages processed last August.

Been itching to get the Google Nexus 4 but don’t want to join O2 for some reason? Maybe a contract with Three would be better for you. The carrier has just become only the second in the United Kingdom to offer Google’s latest smartphone, breaking its month-long exclusivity to O2.