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?

The Apple iPad will have a rival in O2 and The Carphone Warehouse shops within days of arriving in the UK. O2 and Dell have done an exclusive deal that'll see the Dell Streak Android-powered tablet available through O2 UK from early next month.

The Dell Streak runs the Android operating system and has a 5-inch touchscreen, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera, expandable memory, built-in WiFi and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Pricing and tariff information hasn't been confirmed yet.

Orange France has launched a contactless payment and ticketing service in the area around Nice. It's based on an NFC-equipped version of the Samsung Player One handset and includes a free Cityzi pass that'll let consumers buy and validate tickets on public transport, pay in shops and accumulate loyalty points.

The concept of 'Facebook Zero' – a low data text-focussed version of Facebook for mobile phones – was mentioned at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. Three months on, Facebook has now launched the service at 0.facebook.com. The new mobile site is currently available with zero data charges via over 50 mobile operators. The UK isn't yet one of the 45 countries where it works, although 3 UK plans to introduce it soon.