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.

With the first month of Apple iPad sales exceeding 1 million units, it's no surprise to hear that International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts there'll be 7.6 million media tablets shipped worldwide this year.

However, according to IDC, this is just the start of a trend that'll accelerate by a compound annual growth rate of 57.4% during the next four years. In 2014, the company says more than 46 million units will be shipped. That's equivalent to over 10% of the predicted market for portable PCs in 2014.

Last year – in fact, exactly a year ago today – we reported that Californian mobile developer HipLogic had created the SnappLife application store for The Carphone Warehouse in the UK.

The two companies are now announcing HipLogic Live (which replaces the 'SnappLife' branding). This, much like SnappLife, is a free application that helps consumers connect to social networking sites, provides media content and also offers an App store. It'll be preloaded on a number of mobile phones.

Gartner's latest report into worldwide mobile phone sales says end-users bought 314.7 million devices in the first quarter of 2010, 17% up on the same period in 2009. Smartphone sales rose 48.7% to 54.3 million units.

Hong Kong-based manufacturer G-Five made its debut in the top 10, while an increase in OEM 'white box' manufacturing has seen the 'others' category increase.

A recent survey by LG – published as part of the launch campaign for the LG Optimus - says people using the Android operating system are particularly keen on applications that save them money. 25% of people surveyed said they most wanted a money-saving app (e.g. one that offers discount codes), followed by apps that saved time (9%) and apps to help them stay fit (9%). In fourth place were 'apps that help you shop for dinner' (8%) followed by apps for gaming (6%).

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.