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.

Robin Kent writes:

After initially suffering from slow pick up by consumers, 4G has begun to accelerate, and is now well on the way to the forecasted one billion subscribers by 2017. In fact EE, owner of T-Mobile and Orange, recently announced the addition of 493,000 new 4G customers to its existing base of 1.2 million.

Macario Namie writes:

As the connected car phenomenon gains pace, 2014 will see global automotive firms embracing LTE. Machina Research predicts 90% of cars sold in 2020 will have some form of embedded connectivity – that connectivity roll-out continues strong in 2014 and LTE is pivotal to its long-term success.

Mark Bridge writes:

Ring-back tones offer consumers yet another way to customise their mobile phone service. Yet despite this – and the revenue opportunities they provide – many mobile network operators don’t offer them.

Recently I spoke to Florent Stroppa, General Manager Europe for value-added service specialist OnMobile, to find out why the UK doesn’t really seem to be bothered about ring-back tones… and whether the next-generation of ring-back services will change this.

Mark Bridge writes:

I don’t know about you but I’m delighted to see Sony Mobile getting plenty of coverage for its new smart watch and giant smartphone. The company’s impressive presence at Mobile World Congress 2013 showed plenty of promise... and I’d say it’s now delivering.

In this week's podcast we find BlackBerry facing a legal battle, SMS spammers suffering a big fine and EE boosting its 4G data tariffs.

We're also talking about a new iPhone camera accessory from musician will.i.am, rich cross-network communications in Spain, free WiFi in Yorkshire and the year's most-popular mobile search terms.

This week's podcast starts with news that HP is unhappy - but we resist the temptation to include any saucy puns that might spice up the story.

The programme also covers Nokia's new Facebook-friendly phone, plans for white space technology in the UK, shopping on smartphones, Samsung's Chinese suppliers, the demand for mobile data and a new app from Orange that seems to threaten its mobile business.

There's plenty of talk about mobile networks in this week's podcast. We start with a new charity-focussed MVNO before moving on to Ofcom's plans for avoiding a mobile capacity crunch.

There's also talk about WiFi offloading, BlackBerry's free voice calling service, Nokia's map business and much more as well.

In this special feature we're talking about mobile marketing and consumer privacy with Henry Lawson, CEO and co-founder of nFluence.

nFluence offers a technology solution that lets customers use their smartphone to personalise their marketing preferences in less than 30 seconds.

The UK's 4G spectrum auctions are given a start date, while RIM reveals the launch day for its BlackBerry 10 platform.

This week's podcast also covers the patent deal between Apple and HTC, the departure of Windows Live Messenger, the success of the Samsung Galaxy SIII and some mobile payment innovation.