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:

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.

Rachel Thomas of Apps World writes:

Babak Parviz, one of the minds behind Google Glass who has just left the company to be VP at Amazon, has been announced as a keynote speaker at this year’s Apps World Europe, from November 12-13 at the ExCeL, London.

Mark Bridge writes:

In the past five years, what started as an advertising message - “there’s an app for that” - has become a challenge to developers. It’s become part of 21st century culture. And it’s become an totem for journalists to pin their most outrageous app-based stories to.

Roadroid doesn’t need the attention-grabbing headlines.

Mark Bridge writes:

Apple kicked off its 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last week with an announcement about the forthcoming iOS 8 operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. There was some catching up, some innovation and a couple of new services designed to work with home automation and health/fitness devices. What’s Tim Cook’s plan? We’ll have to wait and see.

Mark Bridge writes:

New Apple products! New Android smart watches!

You’d be forgiven for not having noticed either of those news stories last week. Apple did indeed announce a new iPhone – but it was simply a new iPhone 5c with just 8MB of memory.

This programme was recorded at the April 2013 meeting of Mobile Monday London, where a panel of experts discussed the topic 'BYOD: A Faustian Pact?'

The panel was chaired by David Rogers of Copper Horse Security. His panellists were Caroline Maloney from Telefonica, Charles Brookson of Azenby, David Arnold from BlackBerry and Gemma Coles from Mubaloo.

In our 30-minute podcast this week we're talking about the OFT's app investigation, Ofcom's plans for premium rate calls and the growth of Android malware.

We also discuss Microsoft's complaint about Google, an increase in mobile advertising and 'hacking' aircraft navigation using a smartphone.

We start this week's podcast by talking about Facebook Home, the new Android-based service from the social network.

We then move on to discuss quarterly figures, a departure at HP, a mobile acquisition for Cisco, some WiFi research, the end of BBM Music... and much more.

In this week's podcast news report we're talking about quarterly results from BlackBerry and Three UK, we're discussing the latest network complaints data from Ofcom and we're contemplating the arrival of a new Facebook phone.

There's also time to discuss EE's UK 4G rollout, a dramatic move from T-Mobile USA and a train ticket app from O2.

Music is a fundamental part of our lives, yet the vinyl record and the CD are increasingly formats of the past. The rise of digital music has been exponential and mobile is firmly part of that picture.

So where is this all going... and how on earth do you make any money from it?