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 networks aren’t what they used to be. As last week’s interview with Vince Russell of The Cloud demonstrated, more and more customers are relying on WiFi to augment their mobile data service.

Truphone is now planning to do exactly the same with voice calls and text messages by linking its mobile network with WiFi for even wider coverage.

Mark Bridge writes:

We’re moving into that time of year where product announcements are replaced by promotional campaigns and sales figures. Apple revealed it had sold three million assorted iPad tablets in just three days, while Samsung said its Galaxy SIII smartphone had sold more than 30 million units since its launch in May.

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s a smartphone autumn, as prophesied a few weeks ago by the Carphone Warehouse and many others. The frenzy of big-name announcements led by Samsung at Berlin’s IFA has given way to stand-alone media presentations from Nokia, Motorola and Amazon.

Mark Bridge writes:

Back in the 1960s, Hertz was the number one hire car company in the USA. Avis was trailing a long way behind. Looking for a new advertising campaign, CEO Robert Townsend spoke to Bill Bernbach - the ‘B’ in ad agency DDB - and a few months later “We try harder” became the Avis tagline.

“Avis is only No.2 in rent a cars” the headlines admitted. “We try harder. When you’re not the biggest, you have to.”

It’s a message I was reminded of when I met Andreas Bernström at Mobile World Congress last month. Andreas is CEO of Rebtel, the world’s second-largest mobile Voice-over-IP company. With Skype seen as market leader for VoIP services, I asked Andreas whether Rebtel also needed to try harder.

Mark Bridge writes:

The TV in the bedroom switches on. "It's 6.45am. Good morning, Mark. Here are your news headlines for Tuesday 14th June 2016."

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge take a look at mobile news headlines from the last seven days - including new mobile application stores from Sun and Carphone Warehouse, Apple's existing application store and we'll even discuss some news stories not related to application stores at all like GPS, Vodafone's tax challenge and termination rates.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge take a look at mobile news headlines from the last seven days - including Vodafone's new "roaming" promotion, Blyk's revised plans and the Carphone Warehouse's commission changes.

The Fonecast takes its weekly look at the latest mobile news headlines, while Chris Caudle from the IMPDA talks about the falling number of UK mobile phone dealers.

This week's edition of The Fonecast includes an interview with Jonathan Viney from mobile web company Wapple. Plus, as usual, the team takes its regular look at industry headlines from the last 7 days.

Iain, Mark and James take their regular look at the week's mobile news headlines. There's also an interview with Dr Mark Smith, founder of ipadio.com - a service that turns a phone call into a live web broadcast.