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.

David Akka writes:

The issue of choosing the right MDM solution has become more and more pressing, especially for companies implementing a Bring Your Own Device policy. The market place is becoming increasingly crowded with 50 or so vendors who now position themselves as MDMs. Some vendors offer application sharing, some multitenant management, other vendors have a heritage in security or a different strength all together. For organisations considering which option is best it is important to discern between the best known names or the most expensive solutions and select an MDM solution that is fit for purpose.

Tracy Dempsey of Sensum writes:

Northern Irish start-up Sensum gave audiences a taste of the future at the world's largest mobile industry conference in Barcelona last week.

Sensum co-creator Shane McCourt was invited to present the Sensum audience insights platform to a 1,000-strong crowd at the “Back to the Future: Mobile Innovation 2023” conference session at Mobile World Congress 2013.

Mark Bridge writes:

As Mobile World Congress 2013 disappears behind us, so the frenzy of news releases about new products and services returns to relatively normal levels.

Satish Shetty of Codeproof Technologies writes:

Don’t underestimate the security of your smartphone. Here are 4 important but easy security tips to secure your iPhone, iPad, Android phone and Tablet devices.

Mark Bridge writes:

At Mobile World Congress 2012 I spent quite a bit of time talking about quad-core smartphones. The year before had seen a fair amount of 3D screen technology. Back in 2010 it was the growth of apps. This year I wasn’t hearing so much about mobile device innovation.

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.

HTML5 is often described as the shape of things to come; sometimes as the future of the web and sometimes as the nemesis of native mobile applications.

But exactly what is 'HTML 5' - and what does it mean to the mobile industry?

We start this week's podcast with financial results from EE - along with new phones from LG and HTC.

There's also a merger between mobile browser companies, mobile security from Vodafone, free WiFi from Barclays bank, a preview of Ubuntu for smartphones... and much more.

This week's mobile industry news podcast from The Fonecast takes a gloomy look at HP's job losses, the end of the Cisco Cius tablet and the growth in Android malware - before cheering up with encouraging news from Orange, Yahoo! and Sidecar.

You can listen to the programme on our website audio player, via iTunes, by using our RSS feed or by downloading the MP3.

James Rosewell introduces the 51Degrees.mobi Mobile Trends 2011 white paper, explaining how Apple's share of mobile web browsing is apparently falling. We also discuss several other mobile web trends in the document, which covers Europe, the USA and India.