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:

Contactless payments. They're catching on, aren't they?

But mobile contactless payments haven't proved so popular.

Mark Bridge writes:

Bitcoin, as Wikipedia tells me, is a peer-to-peer payment system introduced as open-source software in 2009. It’s a ‘virtual currency’ that can be used for transferring money and for buying products or services, although only if your chosen retailer accepts Bitcoin.

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week a major retailer with a significant online presence announced plans to release its own-brand smartphone by the end of the year. No, not Amazon. This news came from Tesco.

Mark Bridge writes:

Some companies have saved their big announcements for the week of Mobile World Congress. Samsung and Nokia, for example. Others have issued a press release in advance.

Analyst firm Ovum has published its mobile payment and mobile advertising predictions for this year.

Ovum expects continued technology and service innovation, notably around location-based applications, in the mobile payments space in 2014. However, there will be increasing complexity within the mobile payments ecosystem this year, and on-going challenges around the business model for digital wallet services.

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.