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?

Qualcomm, best known for its chip production, has created a subsidiary business that'll focus on mobile technology. Qualcomm Services Labs will "explore new ideas, technologies and service models that can have an immediate impact in the marketplace" by looking at five main areas: communication, information/entertainment, discovery, life automation and 'digital to physical'.

Motorola has recently acquired software developer 280 North, although neither organisation appears to be saying much at the moment. 280 North describes itself as “dedicated to advancing the state of the art on the web”; it’s created a browser-based presentation application called 280 Slides and has also released its app-building framework Cappuccino as an open source project.

Cellmania, which described itself as “the leading provider of wireless search, provisioning and billing solutions to wireless operators”, has been bought by Research In Motion.

It appears likely that Cellmania’s expertise will be used for BlackBerry App World, the RIM application store.

In this week's edition of The Fonecast we take our regular look at mobile industry news from the last seven days, including two Ofcom stories, two Intel stories, two network problems, three sets of financial results and nine arrests.

Samsung has revealed details of its forthcoming tablet computer in an online video. The Samsung Galaxy Tab will apparently have a 7-inch screen, a built-in camera that supports video calling and will run Android 2.2. It's expected to offer HD movie playback and, like the Galaxy S smartphone, will include Swype software for text entry. A formal launch is expected at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin on 2nd September.