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.

The GSMA reported that 85,000 visitors attended Mobile World Congress this year, breaking all previous records for the show.

Andrew Skinner, Relationship Director of the Technology, Media & Telecoms team at Barclays, reflects on his time in Barcelona and some of the key themes to come out of this year’s show.

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.

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.

Rachel McCormack writes:

Mobile point of sale transactions (mPOS) are growing in popularity as mobile use takes over from desktop computers. The description of ‘mobile’ point of sale transactions denotes the ability of a payment to be taken via smartphone or tablet rather than a traditional card reader. There are many different ways to do this; mobile chip & PIN, mobile swipe & sign and NFC payments. All of these methods vary in popularity and security conceptions and many are difficult to understand. In this article we will explore each and give you the chance to understand the technology and issues surrounding the various methods.

John Barton discusses LG's recent successes - including last week's Mobile News Awards wins - and talks about its current UK activities. Plus, as usual, the team takes a look at the latest activity in the UK mobile phone industry.

This week on The Fonecast there's news about the Apple iPhone 3.0 update and all the other mobile industry headlines from the last seven days. In addition we talk to Chris Caudle from the IMPDA about the ways that high-street dealers are coping with the current economic situation.

The Fonecast takes its regular weekly look at the latest mobile news headlines, including a new technology partnership between Barclaycard and Orange. There's also an introduction to the relatively recent phenomenon of 'App Stores'.

This week's edition of The Fonecast talks about mobile phone recycling with Chris Rogerson from ShP Limited - the company behind Mopay. And, as usual, there's our look at industry headlines from the last seven days.

In The Fonecast this week there's an in-depth look at the new Emporio Armani phone produced by Samsung. We also talk about the latest mobile industry headlines, from Vodafone redundancies to mobile viruses.