New rules from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom will protect customers when they use their mobile phone on a foreign network. In addition, customers will be alerted if they are inadvertently roaming, perhaps because they're near an international border.

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.

Mark Bridge writes:

We’re back from Mobile World Congress – and what a show it was. Located at a new site that saw more visitors than ever before, the show had everything… except any particularly obvious theme from hardware manufacturers. Last year was the year of the quad-core smartphone, this year there was plenty of incremental innovation but nothing truly startling.

Mark Bridge writes:

If you want a big money story from the last few days, you want Apple. The company announced its highest quarterly revenue ever, hitting $46.33 billion (£29.66 billion) with record quarterly profits of $13.06 billion. That’s probably enough money to buy the moon, assuming Newt Gingrich is prepared to sell it – or, in the real world, is one of the biggest quarterly profits ever.

Mark Bridge writes:

Happy New Year and welcome to the travelling circus better known as the Carnival of the Mobilists. If you’re looking for the best mobile-related blog posts from the past couple of weeks, you’ve come to the right place. (If you’re wondering about the name of Beyonce’s baby, you need to try somewhere else).

Mark Bridge writes:

With less than a fortnight until Christmas, it’s probably time to order the turkey and start thinking about gifts. What could be a better present than being given your very own mobile operating system?

That’s what’s happening over at HP, which is making its webOS software available to the open source community. The big question now is whether developers will respond with “lovely, just what I wanted” or a slightly embarrassed “oh, I’ve already got one of those.”

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to a summary of last week’s mobile industry news from TheFonecast.com.

The biggest mobile-flavoured story from the past seven days was probably HP’s replacement of its president and CEO. Léo Apotheker is out after less than a year, replaced by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. It’s not likely to affect the company’s plans for webOS tablets and phones… but it’ll be interesting to see what Ms Whitman does next.

The week's mobile industry headlines including an interview with 20:20 Mobile's Stuart Henry, a conversation with John "Doctor Shop" Ryan, a look at the Nokia 7900 Prism and a rant from Mobile News editorial director Ian White.

We interview John Barton from LG Mobile, review the new Sagem my850v, discuss the week's mobile industry news, listen to Ian White's outspoken opinion and look at the 'petbuddi' GSM-based dog location service.

The team talk to Martin Flick of Azzurri Communications about T-Mobile, discuss other stories making the headlines, review the Samsung G600 and Pocket Informant 2007, plus bring you an interview with a real Mystery Shopper.

This week the team reviews the Sagem my300c, interviews Phil Jones from Tex2me.com, looks at Phone Sherpa and discusses all the latest mobile phone industry news.

This week the team debates "is the new Carphone Warehouse upgrade policy good news for the industry?" and reviews the Alcatel OT C-825 & Map24 Mobile software, as well as bringing you commentary on all the latest news.