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 Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Noam Green of Flash Networks writes:

The introduction and deployment of LTE networks offers real promise for both subscribers and operators worldwide. It brings the potential for revolutionary improvements in quality of experience for mobile broadband, and even faster downloads and video streaming.

In this presentation, which was originally given as part of the ‘Multimedia Content Delivery onto Mobile Platforms’ session at Mobile World Congress 2014, Professor Andrew Nix from the University of Bristol explains many of the often-forgotten truths about WiFi service.

If you’re an IT manager, working in a mobile phone shop, looking at tech product design or simply want to get the most from your mobile phone, Professor Nix has plenty of practical advice in this 20-minute video clip.

MEF, the global trade association for companies engaged in mobile content and commerce, has revealed its mobile industry predictions for the next 12 months.

Its forecast combines insights from the group’s Global Board of Directors with research from the recent Global Mobile Consumer Survey.

Mark Bridge writes:

The future of mobile technology is inextricably linked with video… or is it the other way round?

Some of the answers will be discussed next week at a seminar being run by the Digital TV Group (DTG), which is the industry association for digital television in the UK.

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.