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.

James Rosewell writes:

Due to growth in staff numbers my business (51Degrees.mobi) is in the process of moving offices. Coincidentally I'm also moving our home broadband. It’s not been a pleasant experience.

This got me thinking, because a few weeks ago on thefonecast.com we discussed why Ofcom isn’t treating Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) in the same way as fixed-line termination rates. The mobile industry justifies higher MTRs on the assumption that a mobile network costs more to run than a fixed-line network. It was certainly true when the fixed costs of running a mobile network had to be shared across a relatively small number of customers, even if they did pay a fortune for their contracts and terminals. Intuitively I'd say that’s just not true anymore.

James Rosewell writes:

8 months ago I moved my main smartphone from Android to Windows Phone. I had entered a simpler world. There were less applications, no tethering option, voice dictation sucked and I couldn’t get a multi-SIM device. But overall I survived.

Then I started travelling more. I moved back to Android a few weeks ago... and what a disappointment.

James Rosewell writes:

During December 2012 in the United States the HTC Evo 4G contributed 20% of web traffic from HTC devices. What is remarkable about this figure is that the HTC Evo 4G was first released in June 2010 and is almost three years old.

The HTC One series of devices were released during 2012 and contributed less than 10% of HTC’s web traffic in the same month.

Are HTC devices released pre-2012 too good at browsing the web?

James Rosewell writes:

Huawei is a company one can’t miss at Mobile World Congress. They bring their own building!  Plus last year a wonderful “Pegasus” flying horse sculpture made using Ascend handsets was proudly displayed next to the main fountain to hail the launch of the Ascend series of handsets.

Huawei has been busy following MWC12. They now run major parts of Everything Everywhere, Three and O2’s network in the UK. On a less positive note they’re not welcome in the US.

But how has the devices side of the business performed?

James Rosewell writes:

The last time I used a Microsoft based mobile phone was 2008 in the form of the HTC Hermes. Since then Apple and Android have dominated my mobile life. It was therefore with more than a little trepidation that I switched over to Windows Phone 7.5 in the form of the Lumia 800 in July this year. Since then I’m continually being asked what I think of the phone and the operating system. Here are my experiences and thoughts.

This week's podcast begins with news about the new 'quad play' television service offered in the UK by EE.

We also talk about HTC's new camera, an ethical smartphone, a complaint from Ofcom, mobile payments, machine-to-machine connections and yet another online security breach.

We begin this week's podcast with stories that go beyond the mobile industry, as HP plans to split into two companies and eBay prepares to separate itself from PayPal.

We're also talking about the Microsoft/Samsung legal case, a new Tesco tablet, BT's updated text relay service, a new way to avoid buying a stolen iPhone... and #Hairgate.

In this week's podcast we begin with more news about Phones 4u, as Carphone Warehouse steps in to help iPhone 6 buyers.

We also talk about problems at Apple, a brand new handset from BlackBerry, mobile payments, phones on planes and a device that promises to stop people from texting while driving.

This week's podcast begins with the latest news from Phones 4u, where hundreds of jobs have been saved but there are a large number of redundancies as well.

Iain, James and Mark then talk about new products from Amazon, BlackBerry and Panasonic, mobile payment innovation from Indonesia and the UK, the acquisition of IoT specialist Neul and Apple's updated privacy policy.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge start this week's podcast by looking back at the launch of the iPhone 6, the Apple Watch and the Apple Pay service.

They then move on to discuss the troubles at Phones 4u, a UK smartphone launch from O2, another smartphone launch that's been put on hold, Microsoft's gaming plans - and more.