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.

There's definitely money in application stores. PocketGear, which acquired Handango earlier this year and now claims to be the world’s largest open app store and content marketplace, has arranged $15 million in new funding.

The money will come from Trident Capital and BlackBerry Partners Fund.

Mobile research company research2guidance has calculated that the first six months of 2010 have seen more mobile app downloads and more money generated by apps than all of 2009.

Its newest report shows that the worldwide application market was worth over $2.2 billion within the first six months of 2010, compared with a total of $1.7 billion for the 12 months of 2009.

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to TheFonecast.com for this week’s Carnival of the Mobilists, an itinerant online publication that contains the best mobile-focussed writing from the previous seven days.

The summer holidays may have reduced the quantity of online commentary for Carnival #234… but the quality remains unaffected.

Users of the BOLT mobile browser now have access to GetJar’s entire library of over 70,000 free mobile applications via a GetJar branded link on the 'favourites' page.

It's the result of a deal between BOLT's developer Bitstream Inc and GetJar, the world's second-largest app store.

The Wholesale Applications Community, formed in February by a group of telecommunications companies committed to building an open applications platform, is joining forces with the Joint Innovation Lab. The merger is expected to be completed in September.

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.