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.

By incorporating advanced algorithms and machine learning capabilities, AI can help to optimize a smartphone's performance, providing users with a faster, more efficient and user-friendly experience.

Mark Bridge writes:

I've been taking a look back at the devices I've written about during the past few years. Some are still faithful companions, others... well, let's just say my faith was misplaced.

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.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

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?

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge take their regular look at news for the UK mobile phone industry, from patent wars to irresponsible texting – and from job cuts to new CEOs.

Clothing and homewear retailer Next has started selling its own-brand tablet device. The Next 10-inch Tablet runs the Android operating system with an ARM11 processor, has 2GB of expandable memory and offers WiFi (but not mobile) connectivity. Pricing is £180.00 plus delivery.

This week's podcast from The Fonecast takes its regular look at news for the UK mobile phone industry, from the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to free Facebook access on Three UK.

There's also an interview with Dave Tharp of Roulette Cricket about his company's success in last week's final of the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010 competition.

India's Supreme Court has set 25th October as the next hearing for Vodafone's tax appeal. Vodafone could owe the Indian government more than 120 billion rupees (around £1.7 billion) following a court ruling earlier this month, although the company insists nothing is due. The case centres on Vodafone's 2007 purchase of Hutchison's Indian business, which saw Netherlands-based Vodafone International acquiring a stake in Hong Kong-based Hutchison; the stake was owned by a company in the Cayman Islands. Mumbai's High Court says Capital Gains Tax is payable and should have been collected by Vodafone.

Earlier this year the European Commission launched two iPhone-related investigations into Apple's business practices. One looked at Apple’s insistence that repairs were only available in the country where an iPhone was bought, while the other concerned Apple's decision that developers could only use Apple’s own programming tools and approved languages when writing iPhone apps.