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.

Mark Bridge writes:

Mobile phones have been hitting the mainstream news over the past few days. There was Channel 4’s report about data on second-hand phones not being properly deleted before the handsets were re-sold, there was the latest round of the Smart UK Project and there was Tim Muffett’s story about the mobile-enabled high street on BBC Breakfast this morning.

Mark Bridge writes:

Patents were a very popular topic of conversation last week. Google sold its Motorola Mobility smartphone business to Lenovo but hung on to most of the patents. Does this mean the patents were the most valuable part of the business? Well, when you look at the difference between the original purchase price and the sale price, it seems a reasonable conclusion.

Mark Bridge writes:

The Rockstar Consortium. That name sounds as though it could be promising more than it can deliver, doesn’t it?  Well, it’s not. It’s the group of mobile companies that picked up Nortel’s portfolio of several thousand tech patents for $4.5 billion. And now, its members – including Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson and Sony – have set some of those patents on their biggest competitors.

We're talking about plenty of new products and services in this week's podcast, including the iPhone 3GS, augmented reality browsers and stealth headsets. Meanwhile, Faisal Sheikh from Fone Doctors tells us that consumers are now looking at operating systems, not brand names, when they choose a new phone.

This week the team takes a look at mobile web browser security... and explains why your bank's recommended browser isn't as safe as you might expect. Plus, as usual, there's an in-depth look at the week's industry headlines.

Iain, Mark and James look at the new iPhone and talk to Ethelbert Williams about the Nokia Point & Find service. Plus there's room for the rest of the week's mobile industry headlines.

In this special extended interview, Suneet Singh Tuli talks to Iain Graham about the PocketSurfer device. They discuss form factors, flat-rate charging for data, roaming charges, convergence, consumer acceptance - and the forthcoming PocketSurfer3.

This week's edition of The Fonecast seems to be disproportionately full of good news... not that we're complaining. There's also an interview with Suneet S Tuli, who's CEO of the company behind the PocketSurfer2 mobile internet device.