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.

Jürgen Hase of Deutsche Telekom writes:

The Smart City is on its way. All over the world more and more cities are connecting all areas of their infrastructure. Pisa in Tuscany, for example, aims to improve its traffic management with a machine-to-machine (M2M) solution and a Big Data service provided by Deutsche Telekom.

Mark Bridge writes:

As one show closes, so another show opens.

It’s now more than a week since we bid a sad farewell to Mobile World Congress 2014 – I imagine hotel rooms for 2nd to 5th March 2015 are already being booked – but there’s now CeBIT in Germany to look forward to. Prime Minister David Cameron kicked things off last night with a speech that talked about UK-German partnerships, more funding for research around the ‘Internet of Things’ and the development of 5G technology.

Macario Namie writes:

As the connected car phenomenon gains pace, 2014 will see global automotive firms embracing LTE. Machina Research predicts 90% of cars sold in 2020 will have some form of embedded connectivity – that connectivity roll-out continues strong in 2014 and LTE is pivotal to its long-term success.

Jürgen Hase writes:

Machine-to-machine communication (M2M) and the Internet of Things (IoT) run through all areas of life and work. Cars, cargo containers, parking spaces or even wristwatches and coffee cups – everything around us is on the verge of being connected.

Mark Bridge writes:

I’ve recently been talking to Theo Neumann from Wolverhampton City Radio about the top ten gadgets that are likely to hit the headlines in 2013. The most desirable, most likely to be talked about, most exciting… that kind of thing. Although my top 10 list isn’t entirely mobile-related, I thought it was worth sharing here.

The team takes a look at social networking using your mobile and reviews the LG KE850 (Prada) phone and the Samsung W559. They also find time to take a look at a new mobile game from Desperate Housewives, and Soonr; a utility to connect your mobile to Outlook, Skype and PC. Plus there's a review of global mobile news from the past week.

This week the team look at the new N76 from Nokia, an interesting WiFi & SIM Free phone from Tovo, discuss the future of Push-to-Talk in the UK as well as the TV show Countdown on your mobile and Mobi-Medic to help with on the spot 1st aid.

The team discuss the iPhone and the mobile news coming from CES. They take a look behind the headlines at other activity in the mobile industry and review Eragon the mobile game to accompany the film.

We have a review of a Mobile based fitness application by Ascendo, take a look at new mobile brand and phone called the NEO 808i and Sagem latest budget 3G offering in the form of the my600v. We also discuss Virtual Networks and ASDA's proposed entry along with the latest news and views.

This week the team review 2006, take a look at two new phones from Samsung, review the last 2 weeks news and take a look at Six-o-Phone a service that allows you to make money from downloads.