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.

In this week's podcast we discuss Apple's legal settlement with Nokia, 4G plans for the UK, Everything Everywhere's new shops, HP's new tablet and the rest of the UK's industry news headlines.

Todd Levy of BloomWorlds.com talks to us about developing a family-friendly application store. He explains how he's trying to help 'Android parents' and their children - and why he's convinced there's room in the market for independent app stores.

Iain, James and Mark discuss Monday's big Apple announcements before talking about 4G LTE interference, Windows on tablets, Acer's problems, a new price comparison site and a mountain rescue that was helped by a cameraphone.

Iain Graham and Mark Bridge discuss the recent report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The IARC has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields - 'mobile phone radiation' - as being possibly carcinogenic, so Iain and Mark find out what this means.

Iain, James and Mark discuss the week's top mobile news headlines, covering the UK's first 4G trial, Google's mobile payments, Symbian's plans, Ofcom's broadband study and some customer satisfaction research.