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:

Last year, the Google I/O developer conference gave us plenty of product announcements: Google Glass, the Nexus 7 tablet, the Nexus Q device and the Jelly Bean version of Android. This year’s announcements were less dramatic: a streaming music service, a Google-friendlier Galaxy S4 and some game development tools. Coincidentally (or perhaps not) Apple announced its 50 billionth app download in the middle of the event.

VOA News writes:

New market research has many technology experts thinking the era of the personal computer (PC) is coming to an end as consumers worldwide begin to embrace tablet computers and smartphones.

Mark Bridge writes:

Let’s start with a slightly belated birthday wish to the hand-held mobile phone, which made its first public appearance on 3rd April 1973. At that point we’d had carphones for a while… but this was the first time anyone had heard the phrase “Sorry, I’ve got to go, the battery’s running out” spoken in public. Or something like that.

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s time to ‘ketchup’ with last week’s biggest mobile industry news stories - and where better to start than with HP’s claims of ‘saucy’ behaviour?  It’s launched an investigation into last year’s acquisition of UK company Autonomy, claiming the software company had ‘spiced up’ its valuation. Condiment-based puns aside, it’s a serious matter that could see key players from the deal charged with cooking the books.

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.

This week Iain and Mark take a deeper look at mobile security and crime, they review the massive 4GB N91 from Nokia and look at a a budget video phone from LG.

As well as a brief look at the News this week the gang look at both ends of the new handset spectrum with the QTek 8500 and the BenQ-Siemens E61. James Rosewell provides an overview of how to get music and video to your mobile from DVDs and CDs.

In The Fonecast this week, industry veteran Iain Graham and tech enthusiast Mark Bridge take a close look at the ultra-slim Samsung D900, they pore over the Nokia N73 smartphone and they evaluate a couple of new software downloads. In addition, application developer James Rosewell joins them for a revealing conversation about mobile blogging.

In The Fonecast this week, Iain Graham and Mark Bridge review the new Nokia N93 and Sony Ericsson W850i mobile phones, guest James Rosewell takes a look at competition from VoIP, HSDPA technology is demystified and a couple of new software downloads are evaluated.