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?

Hewlett-Packard, which announced a takeover of Palm earlier this year, says future HP smartphones will only run the webOS operating system.

In an interview with CNBC, HP Executive Vice President Todd Bradley said his company will continue to work with Microsoft but will only use the Palm-designed webOS for new smartphone devices.

Chip designer ARM has signed a new agreement with Microsoft. Although details of the agreement will remain confidential, it's described as giving Microsoft closer access to ARM's technology. The two companies have worked together since 1997.

The BBC Trust, which governs the BBC on behalf of the public, says the BBC's plans to launch its own smartphone applications don't require a Public Value Test. As a result, the apps – which had been delayed - are being launched today.

Internet services company AOL Inc has revealed a new mobile website at m.aol.com and is also launching a couple of Android applications. The news comes a month after ex-Palm man David Temkin joined as the company’s new Vice President of Mobile.

At the end of May, VoIP service Skype launched a new iPhone application that allowed calling over 3G networks and noted that "Skype-to-Skype calls on 3G will be free for a trial period which will run until the end of 2010".

The company has just updated its iPhone app for iOS4 and announced it's decided not to implement an additional charge for calls made over 3G.