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."

This week in The Fonecast we interview Quore MD Ronojay Nag. In addition, there's the usual look at industry news and rumours from the last 7 days, plus a review of the Sony Ericsson Z555i.

In this week’s edition of The Fonecast we take an extended look at the week's industry news headlines and gossip, including Arun Sarin's departure from Vodafone and 3's termination charge appeal. Plus we also find time to review the Samsung F490 widescreen mobile phone.

This week’s edition of The Fonecast includes our regular look at industry news headlines and gossip from the last 7 days. Mobile News editorial director Ian White talks about a press release that’s been troubling him, plus there's a preview of the Motorola MOTO Z10 video-focussed smartphone.

On The Fonecast this week, Faisal Sheikh talks to Iain Graham about his new "Love Your Mobile" TV show. We take our usual look at the week's industry news headlines, plus there's a preview of the HTC Touch Diamond smartphone.

In this week's edition of The Fonecast you’ll hear an interview with Shaun Gregory, the UK CEO of Blyk, about the company’s achievements and its plans. The team also takes its usual look at the latest mobile news headlines, plus there’s a quick review of the new Nokia 6600 slide.