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:

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.

Joe DeCapua of voanews.com writes:

Mobile phone use in Africa has spread far, wide and fast. By the end of last year, it was estimated that 70 percent of the population would have a mobile phone. Now, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says it’s using the technology to save lives.

Mark Bridge writes:

Happy New Year!  It’s been three weeks since our last newsletter and a fortnight since our podcast of mobile predictions for 2013, so there’s plenty to catch up with.

Mark Bridge writes:

Predicting the future is easy. Making accurate predictions is more of a challenge. In our final podcast of 2012 we've provided a forecast for the mobile telecoms industry in 2013 - and we've also looked back at last year's expectations.

So... what do the three of us at TheFonecast.com expect from mobile phones and wireless technology next year?

Mark Bridge writes:

We started last week with a 20th birthday party for the SMS text message, which was first used as an alternative Christmas card by Neil Papworth in 1992. Since then, mobile data has been transformed from the familiar dit-dit-dit dah-dah dit-dit-dit of Nokia phones to non-stop internet connectivity on smart devices.

Can mobile devices be used for game-based learning as part of the school curriculum?

This discussion was recorded in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress 2013 as part of Heroes of the Mobile Fringe. The panel was moderated by Russell Buckley with contributions from Vincent Hoogsteder of Distimo, Volker Hirsch of BlackBerry and Alina Vandenberghe of Pearson.

Traditional media is in a state of flux, with consumers changing their media consumption habits. User-generated content, piracy and the rise of mobile are presenting even more challenges.

But what does it mean for publishers and media owners?

Today's edition of The Fonecast takes a look at the top mobile-related news stories from the past week, including the new Google Keep app, Apple's mapping acquisition and Facebook's VoIP service.

We also cover the BlackBerry World application store, a new UK 4G survey from eBay, in-car connectivity and the recent Yahoo! purchase of Summly.

Mobile has been called the new frontier in consumer loyalty. But exactly how can mobile technology be used to improve the customer experience in high-street shops?

To learn more, we've joined a discussion group moderated by Russell Buckley with contributions from Katie Lips, Coen van Breda, David Hueso, Troy Norcross and Priya Prakash.

New businesses need more than just a good idea. They also need money. That's why the Mobile Monday London group chose 'Finance, Incubators and Accelerators' as the topic for its recent meeting.

This special report offers a variety of perspectives on business funding in a panel discussion with John Spindler, Alistair Hill, Nic Brisbourne, Sitar Teli, Michel Sabatier and Inma Martinez.