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?

Telefonica and eBay have launched a global deal that’ll see eBay's mobile application loaded onto most mobile devices sold via O2 UK.

It's the first mobile pre-load deal agreed by eBay anywhere in the world and is also the first time Telefónica has made an app available to smartphone and feature phone customers.

The Wholesale Applications Community, which was created at last year’s Mobile World Congress, has announced the commercial launch of the organisation. There are now WAC-powered app stores as well as WAC-compliant handsets and web applications.

A number of major mobile operators and handset manufacturers are already working with the WAC platform.

The winners of the 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards were announced at the GSMA Mobile World Congress last night.

Apple’s iPhone 4 was awarded Best Mobile Device, HTC collected the Best Device Manufacturer Award and Angry Birds picked up the Best Mobile App Award.

GetJar, which describes itself as the world’s largest open app store, has raised $25 million in its latest round of funding.

The company plans to expand its offering to Android publishers while continuing to support other smartphone platforms. In the past year, GetJar has established partnerships with key players including Yahoo!, Sprint, AT&T, Openwave, Rovio, Zynga and Glu Mobile. It's also quadrupled the number of downloads per month and tripled its number of employees.

HTC has revealed a number of new products at Mobile World Congress, including two Facebook-focussed handsets. The Android-powered HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa both feature a dedicated Facebook button for one-touch access to key functions of the Facebook service.

Also expected in Q2 of 2011 is the HTC Flyer tablet. It’s a 7-inch device with a 1.5GHz processor and an aluminium body.