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.

Here’s an edited transcript of our new monthly podcast, broadcast on 30th January 2015.

[Iain Graham]: Hello, it's Friday 30th January 2015. Welcome to this month's edition of The Fonecast. That’s right, you heard correctly: we’ve temporarily moved to a monthly format. If you’d like to join 51Degrees in sponsoring the podcast and returning us to weekly programmes, please get in touch via our website. Now, on with the show.

Mark Bridge writes:

Every week we produce a half-hour podcast that covers all the biggest news headlines for the UK mobile phone industry.

Thanks to a special offer from Scribie.com, we can also offer a transcription of last week’s programme.

VOA News writes:

New market research has many technology experts thinking the era of the personal computer (PC) is coming to an end as consumers worldwide begin to embrace tablet computers and smartphones.

This week's podcast takes a look at Everything Everywhere's departing CEO, Vodafone's security concerns, ZTE's own-brand phones, HTC's legal worries and Sony Ericsson's results. As usual, the programme is hosted by Iain Graham with James Rosewell and Mark Bridge.

As 'voicemail hacking' news stories continue, Iain Graham talks to mobile industry crime-fighter Jack Wraith. Jack discusses mobile phone security from his position as head of the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum and the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum.

We're talking about the EC's new roaming proposition, eBay's latest mobile payment purchase, Three's partnership with Ovi and all the other top mobile industry news stories in this week's podcast.

Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda, announces the EC's new plans to cut the cost of roaming from next year. Mobile phone calls, text messages and data charges will all be given maximum limits - and new 'roaming only' tariffs could also be introduced.

We're talking about Nortel patents, Google Plus, roaming charges and health concerns in this week's mobile industry podcast... but that's not all. We also discuss mobile payments, security, gambling, apps and the Pope's first Tweet.