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?

Yesterday morning City of London Police arrested nine people as part of an investigation into a suspected fraud case that's believed to have involved premium-rate international phone numbers being called on mobile phones. Officers also seized up to £15,000 worth of mobile phones along with hundreds of SIM cards and fake documents. The raids took place after an investigation in partnership with O2.

This year's Communications Market Report from telecomms regulator Ofcom has revealed a surge in smartphone ownership. In June 2010, 26.5% of people in the UK said they had a smartphone, more than double the number two years previously. Growth in the last 12 months was particularly strong, up 81% from 7.2 million users in May 2009 to 12.8 million in May 2010.

Mark Bridge writes:

The adage that “the customer is always right” has apparently been disproved by a recent survey of mobile phone users.

Mobile News reports that virtual networks Virgin Mobile and Tesco Mobile outperformed their network partners in a recent customer satisfaction survey carried out by research firm YouGov for price comparison website uSwitch.

With smartphone security hitting the headlines this month, The Fonecast talks to mobile security expert Jack Wraith, who heads the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum and the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum. He explains what the problems are, how consumers can protect themselves… and what the industry can do to help.

Plus, as usual, there's a review of the week's other major mobile industry news. Oracle, Google, JAG, Yes Telecom, Vodafone, O2, Motorola, Qualcomm, Nokia, BlackBerry and – rather tenuously – Catherine Zeta-Jones's bottom are all discussed by Iain, James and Mark.

James Rosewell writes:

Yesterday I received the following text message from O2: “You’ve gone over your data allowance on your mobile. You need to cut down or get a bigger Bolt On to keep using the internet.” I thought this was strange as I’ve an unlimited data bolt on applied to my O2 UK contract so I decided to telephone O2 customer services to find out a little bit more. Here’s what happened.