UK telecoms regulator Ofcom wants to ban inflation-related rises in phone and broadband contracts. Instead, it says any potential mid-contract price rises should be set out in pounds and pence.

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:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

James Rosewell writes:

During December 2012 in the United States the HTC Evo 4G contributed 20% of web traffic from HTC devices. What is remarkable about this figure is that the HTC Evo 4G was first released in June 2010 and is almost three years old.

The HTC One series of devices were released during 2012 and contributed less than 10% of HTC’s web traffic in the same month.

Are HTC devices released pre-2012 too good at browsing the web?

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s the week before Christmas, which can only mean one thing for the mobile industry: plenty of research news. Yes, when there isn’t anything new to talk about, a survey or forecast is the perfect way to fill the silence.

Mind you, things haven’t been entirely quiet when it comes to mobile products and services.

Mark Bridge writes:

The new iPad has a better screen. Higher-resolution. Clearer. High Definition. Just what everyone wants, right?

Apparently not.

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s not been a good week for Nokia staff, with 4000 of them likely to lose their jobs from factories in Finland, Hungary and Mexico. The company says it’s moving device assembly to Asia, where it’ll be closer to component manufacturers. The three scaled-down factories will remain open with a new focus on smartphone customisation.

The Toshiba Portege G900 smartphone is reviewed, we interview new Extreme Mobile MD John McFarnon, Ian White from Mobile News talks about customer service, we play with Flexis Extreme and we discuss the week’s industry news headlines.

10 things you need to know about the Apple iPhone, an exclusive interview with Unique Distribution's new CEO, industry news and gossip, Ian White's outspoken opinion and a review of the 'phoneAlarm' utility program.

What's happening at Truphone? We talk to the company’s CEO, James Tagg. Ian White tells us about "poaching", and the team review the latest news and views from around the industry, plus review the Sony Ericsson W910i and Spybot Search & Destroy.

The team are joined by Faisal Sheikh of Fone Doctors and Ian White of Mobile News to discuss T-Mobile's rumoured exit from the dealer channel, 3G for all, as well as the rest of the weeks news. They review the O2 Cocoon and debate "Is the mobile internet finally ready for consumers?", and Theme-DIY to customise Nokia series 60s.

The team review the HTC Touch an iPhone contender, debate the question "Are customers getting the mobile services they want?", bring you the latest news and find time to review "Kojak - Detective Puzzles".