New rules from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom will protect customers when they use their mobile phone on a foreign network. In addition, customers will be alerted if they are inadvertently roaming, perhaps because they're near an international border.

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:

“Take some responsibility for your own actions”. There’s probably not a parent in the world who hasn’t said or thought something similar. But that’s not the message coming from regulators in the USA.

We’ve laughed in the past about coffee cups from the United States that warn about the coffee they contain. Now there seems to be a similar movement against mobile phones that connect to the internet.

This is a guest post from BusinessInsider.com written by Gregor Schauer, who has worked in tech in Silicon Valley since 2000. Gregor has also recently spent two years in equity research at JMP Securities and Jefferies, covering the internet sector and enterprise software.

Anthony Keyworth, Orange UK’s Director of Product Marketing, has been gazing into his crystal ball to predict which business-focussed mobile applications could change the ways we work in the next five years.

His top four future developments, published under the heading “The next frontier for mobile business applications”, are:

Mark Bridge writes:

No-one really likes an anticlimax. That was my biggest complaint about the launch of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. Plenty of potential, a nice new interface – but nothing much that wasn’t being done elsewhere.

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s not just me, is it?  The mobile industry really has gone a bit litigation crazy.

There's plenty of variety in The Fonecast this week. We start the podcast with news of MeeGo's resurrection by Finnish smartphone company Jolla before talking about a mobile network that’s giving away mobile data whenever its customers watch video advertisements.

There's also time to discuss Telefonica's recent deals, the rise of free WiFi availability, tablet-related legal action, malware in the Apple App Store and the truth behind a recent 'exploding mobile phone' story.

In this special feature we're talking to Ian Brown from Axell Wireless about mobile phone coverage on the London Underground.

WiFi is now available on a number of London Underground stations - so why is it taking so long to arrange mobile phone service on the Tube?

This week's edition of The Fonecast takes a look at the new Google Nexus 7 tablet, wonders what's next for RIM and awaits the arrival of the forthcoming Firefox mobile platform.

There's also talk about HTC's partnership with Pioneer, Vodafone's European reorganisation, the new BT WiFi brand, Ofcom complaints, tariff problems and international roaming.

In this week's podcast we're talking about the forthcoming Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system, the UK launch of the Amazon Appstore and the GSMA's plans to make international roaming easier to understand.

There's also time to discuss new mobile tariffs from Virgin Media, cars that call for help after an accident, some mobile shopping research and LG's future as a tablet manufacturer.

Iain Graham visits Faisal Sheikh of London-based Fone Doctors in today's audio feature.

They talk about the recent Fone Doctors relocation to new offices near London Bridge and Faisal's plans for a franchise outlet at Liverpool Street station before moving on to discuss training, customer service, the rise of the tablet and the demise of customer service.