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.

The Linux-based First ELSE mobile device – a mobile phone that was being built by ELSE Mobile in partnership with Access Co. and Sharp Corporation – is no more. The phone was unveiled in November 2009 and was exhibited at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. (Click here to listen to our February podcast interview with Amir Kupervas, CEO of ELSE Mobile).

In this week's edition of The Fonecast we discuss the reported problems surrounding the launch of the Apple iPhone 4 – and we take a look at the rest of the week's industry news, from mobile TV and roaming charges to Symbian and Android. In addition, there's a visit to Good Technology to learn more about its mobile email service.

A report today from comScore reveals that iPhone owners consume more mobile media than people with other handsets. (Admittedly some might argue it's not much of a revelation because the iPhone has been designed for this purpose).

The Apple iPhone has just 4% market share in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, although iPhone users represent 12% of all mobile media users. comScore's report says 94% of iPhone owners use mobile media, 87% use applications and 85% browse the mobile internet. The average for all smartphones is 65% mobile media, 53% web browsing and 53% app usage.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.