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.

Noam Green of Flash Networks writes:

The introduction and deployment of LTE networks offers real promise for both subscribers and operators worldwide. It brings the potential for revolutionary improvements in quality of experience for mobile broadband, and even faster downloads and video streaming.

Mark Bridge writes:

Great news for mobile phone users. Ofcom’s new rules preventing unexpected mid-contract price rises came into force last week, which means UK consumers can no longer be surprised by their subscription charge increasing while they’re still locked into a minimum-term deal.

Mark Bridge writes:

It was a relatively quiet time for tech news last week, with many companies taking a day off to celebrate Thanksgiving in the USA and then planning for a present-buying retail frenzy on ‘Black Friday’. Today the focus on Christmas shopping moves online; a day that’s called either ‘Cyber Monday’ or ‘Mega Monday’ if you work for a news organisation.

Yet it wasn’t an entirely newsless week.

Mark Bridge writes:

August is traditionally known as the ‘silly season’… but last week’s mobile industry news was all very serious. Apple started with a move designed to reassure customers about unsafe iPhone chargers by arranging a discounted exchange scheme – and it ended the week with a patent victory in the USA.

George Putic of voanews.com writes:

When news broke about U.S. government agencies collecting metadata about its citizens’ Internet and phone communications, many were surprised by its scope. The surveillance covered a vast number of Internet messages and phone calls. The government did not deny the action but pointed out that the collected data contained, not the substance of the communication, but the so-called metadata.

In today's podcast we're talking about Samsung's new Galaxy S4 smartphone, BlackBerry's record-breaking purchase order and Intuit's mobile payment service.

There's also a discussion about the changes at ST-Ericsson, a new CEO coming to ARM, Vodafone's sponsorship plans, management moves at Android and the 2013 Mobile News Awards.

Today's podcast talks about job cuts at Motorola, a tariff promise from Tesco Mobile and a departing CEO at ST-Ericsson.

There's also news about acquisitions, application stores, European network standards and a chilly way of breaking into an encrypted smartphone.

We're back from Mobile World Congress 2013 with the latest news for the UK mobile phone industry.

Today's conversation covers new handsets, forthcoming operating systems, apps, mobile payments, VoIP, 4G and Facebook's two-tier internet.

Today's podcast was recorded at Mobile World Congress 2013, where Mark Bridge has been reporting on the latest news from handset manufacturers.

He also drops into the Global Mobile Awards - and finds out who won the inaugural Dead Technology Award at the unofficial festival fringe.

In today's special programme we're preparing for Mobile World Congress 2013. To find out what to expect, Mark Bridge talks to Dr Windsor Holden of Juniper Research.

Their conversation covers everything from Apple's absence to connected cows - and from new operating systems to paying for applications.